Missing Aberdeen sisters did not tell family about plans to leave rented flat

Two missing sisters did not tell relatives they were “immediately” going to move out of their rented flat in Aberdeen, it has emerged.

Eliza and Henrietta Huszti, both aged 32, were last seen on CCTV in the city’s Market Street at Victoria Bridge at about 2.12am on Tuesday 7 January.

The siblings – who are part of a set of triplets and originally from Hungary – were seen crossing the bridge and turning right on to a footpath next to the River Dee in the direction of Aberdeen Boat Club.

Their disappearance has sparked a major search operation.

The Police Scotland team has included a helicopter, as well as a dog branch and marine unit.

The force previously said there has been “no evidence” of the missing sisters leaving the immediate area.

During the investigation, officers have learned the sisters had been planning to move out of the flat they rented in the city.

Superintendent David Howieson said on Tuesday: “There was an indication from the person from whom they rent a flat who had concerns that they left the flat and indicated they intended to move.”

However, in an interview with the BBC, the sisters’ brother Jozsef said they did not inform their relatives of this decision – including during a phone call they had with their mother on the Saturday before their disappearance.

He said: “They wrote a message to their landlady that they wanted to immediately end their tenancy agreement. We didn’t have any information about that.

“So that’s the strange thing, that the girls didn’t tell us anything about that. They never mentioned any such plan.”

He said the women had no financial difficulties and were saving up to buy their own property.

Police are keeping an open mind about what happened to the women, but have said they have not found anything to suggest a third party was involved.

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Superintendent Howieson said: “We’re trying to remain open minded in terms of what the wider circumstances may have been.

“What we know is that the behaviour of the sisters in the morning on which they disappeared is very out of character.

“We don’t really understand why they seem to have left their home address and walked to this area in a fairly direct line before the CCTV footage of them is exhausted.

“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 riverbank, 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.”

He added that during their investigation, police have not found anything that pointed towards “criminality or suspicious circumstances”.

In a statement released through Police Scotland earlier this week, the women’s family said: “This has been a very worrying and upsetting time for our family.

“We are really worried about Eliza and Henrietta and all we want is for them to be found.”