Missing persons expert Charlie Hedges, a former police officer, has given his verdict on the ongoing investigation into finding twins Eliza and Henrietta Huszti
A huge search and rescue mission was launched when Eliza and Henrietta Huszti suddenly disappeared on January 7, but weeks on, their family are still looking for answers.
The 32-year-old twins, originally from Hungary, vanished from their home city of Aberdeen and were last spotted on CCTV on the city’s Victoria Bridge, which crosses the River Dee, in the early hours of the morning. One police theory is that the two women entered the water that day, but their helicopters, dogs, and marine specialist units failed to find them.
Further evidence uncovered by Police Scotland included an account from the twins’ landlady, who received a message at 2.12am saying they would not be returning to their flat, before the phone was switched off. She found the twins’ possessions at the property, with only one of their mobile phones taken with them.
We asked Charlie Hedges MBE, an expert in cases of missing persons, for his take on the mysterious case…
“The police are saying they’re keeping an open mind to other possibilities, with the river being one of those which is the right thing to do,” he said. “You should form hypotheses about what might have happened – from what we’ve heard there’s a strong indicator that the river is a possibility. This would account for their total disappearance but you always have to keep an open mind.”
The search of the river was called off after three weeks, with CCTV last capturing the sisters at Victoria Bridge, before they turn right down a footpath toward Aberdeen Boat Club. “Water is probably the most difficult environment to search,” said ex-cop Charlie.
“It’s constantly moving with very limited visibility, and I would imagine there’s a fairly strong flow of water there. This time of year, there’s a strong movement which may well play into tidal action through the sea.”
Police have vowed to continue to scour the coast to the north and the south, and sadly, Charlie says as time goes on, the chances of the twins being found alive will decrease.
“The vast majority of missing people overall are found,” he said. “They either come back of their own will, or they’re found through enquiries. Once they’ve been missing this length of time, the chances of them being found alive do diminish; it’s not to say it’s impossible.”
“It makes you wonder why did they visit the river on the previous occasion,” added the expert, speaking of the CCTV footage released by Police Scotland showing the twins at Victoria Bridge at 2.50pm on the day before they vanished into thin air. “Was it purely coincidence or were they actually thinking of doing anything?
“There are some elements of it that appear to be planned and prepared in relation to wanting to terminate their tenancy and leaving their belongings and one of their phones behind. But that would also suggest they might be also going back again so there’s a lot of conflicting information there, that needs to be teased out to try and understand what’s going on.”
The twins’ brother Jozsef Huszti told BBC News that their mother spoke to her daughters in a 40-minute conversation four days earlier, during which nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Their third triplet, Edit, spoke to them on a video call on New Year’s Eve, saying they appeared happy and cheerful.
Eliza and Henrietta are said to have been very close, doing most things together and saving up to buy their own home. Being out on the streets in the early hours of the morning was unusual behaviour for them, their family believe.
“As with every case, it’s a question of assessing the circumstances in which they went missing and find out as much as possible about the people who are missing to try and bring the two together and work out what might have happened,” said the expert. “The police will be looking to see what their lifestyle is, relations and connections, what they do and whether that gives any cause for concern although they seem to have negated any issues like that.
“It’s very difficult for the family when they’re separated from the location where the people have gone missing from. They will have uncertainty and unanswered questions. I would advise them to keep the lines of communication open through the police as much as they can.”
Detectives are not treating the disappearance of the twins as suspicious and are keeping an open mind about their fate. “One of our theories has to be that they’ve entered the water for reasons unknown, and that’s why so much of our search activity is focused on the river, the river bank, and the harbour itself, but we’re not ruling out the fact that they may have left this area by means that we haven’t identified yet,” said Supt David Howieson.
