Police have dismissed lurid claims about the final known hours two Hungarian sisters who disappeared in Scotland more than a week ago.
According to media reports back in their homeland, Eliza and Henrietta Huszti had been partying with a “group of males” before they vanished in Aberdeen.
However, that was completely ruled out by investigators who said they had accurately and conclusively traced the pair – two of triplets – from their home to the place where they were last seen.
Their rebuttal came after Hungarian news outlet, Blikk, quoted one woman in Aberdeen who said she knew the 32-year-olds. Giving her name only as Ana, she stated: “We know that the two girls were having fun with a friend of theirs, and a group of men (sic) and then when they were heading home….”
READ MORE: ‘Screams heard’ from river around the time missing sisters were last seen in Aberdeen
But police sources said that was absolutely untrue and they know both women left their own home in the city early on the morning of Tuesday, January 7. The last confirmed a sighting of the pair was captured by CCTV as walked down Market Street near Victoria Bridge at 2.12am.
It is believed they then entered a steep – and icy – footpath, around 500m long and surrounded by razor wire, which runs down to the banks of the River Dee. The waterway is where the search for the women is now being concentrated as there is not any CCTV evidence of either of them returning from there.
One of the Huszti sisters with the third triple, Edit (right)
The news comes as the third triplet revealed she had a premonition of “something bad” happening to her siblings. According to a family friend, Edit Huszti spoke to Eliza and Henrietta on New Year’s Eve in a video call but afterwards “had some kind of bad feeling even then but couldn’t explain what it was.”
It has been revealed that in the days leading up to their disappearance, the Hustzi sisters had told their landlady in Aberdeen that they would be leaving their flat. The missing women’s brother, Joszef, speaking from the family home in the Hungarian capital, Budapest, told BBC Scotland of his surprise at this news.
He said: “We don’t understand this whole thing. That they wrote a message to their landlady, that they wanted to immediately end their tenancy agreement. We didn’t have any information about that.”
The sisters are pictured with brother Jozsef
Mr Hutszi added: “So, that’s the strange thing, that the girls didn’t tell us anything about that. They never mentioned any such plan. So, that is the strange thing, that the girls did not tell us anything about that. They never mentioned any such plan. Even when my mother spoke to them on the Saturday, they didn’t mention anything about it, that they had any plan to move out.”
The man heading the missing persons’ inquiry said he had “a number of hypotheses” and was remaining open-minded about what may have happened to them.
Superintendent Davie Howieson explained: “In the days preceding, the sisters had indicated to the landlord that they intended to leave their tenancy and the landlord carried out inquiries at the address which has led them to be concerned about the whereabouts of the sisters.”
But he stressed: “There are no suspects. This is not a criminal inquiry. This is a missing persons inquiry.”
CCTV shows they entered a footpath next to the river
Supt. Howieson explained: “”What we do know is that, at the moment, CCTV provides that they entered a footpath adjacent to the River Dee and we have no trace of them leaving that footpath yet. Inquiries continue to see if we can extend that timeline further.”
He went on: “’We have carried out extensive inquiries in terms of the state of mind the sisters may have been in, the lifestyles, movements, contact with friends and family.
“Everything that we have gleaned so far, suggests that they were happily living this life in Aberdeen – working, socialising with friends and keeping in touch with family in an entirely normal manner.’’
Henrietta, who works in a city centre Costa Coffee outlet and Henrietta, a hotel cleaner, left their native Hungary about seven years ago. Throughout the inquiry, Police Scotland has been liaising closely with their colleagues in Budapest.
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