Human remains found in search for Scots woman swept away by river two years ago

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Human remains have been found in the search for missing pensioner Hazel Nairn.The 71-year-old vanished after being swept into the River Don, near Monymusk, on Friday, November 18, 2022, after the area was affected by severe flooding.

Detectives confirmed the body of a woman was recovered from the River Don at around 1.20pm today.Formal identification has yet to take place but the pensioner's family have been informed.The death is currently being treated as unexplained but there are not believed to be any suspicious circumstances.Hazel was carrying her West Highland terrier, Rory, alongside a friend when they were all swept into the River Don which had burst its banks.A huge search operation was launched, involving marine divers, sniffer dogs and a police helicopter.Hazel's heartbroken daughter, Anneka Gray, 38, told the Record how she had even taken up kayaking in an effort to try and find her mum.

She explained: “What has happened to our family has been a living nightmare. “For months we used to walk the banks every day searching for her, then at night I’d wake up worrying that I’d seen something we might have overlooked.“My partner and I have been having kayak lessons so we can safely get into the water and search for her.

For a long time after my mum disappeared, the river remained high but now water levels have dropped.“At the very least, we might have expected to find a piece of her jacket on the barbed wire fence of one of the flooded fields she was initially swept across.