The body of a woman recovered from a river has been confirmed as a missing mum who is believed to have been swept away while trying to save her beloved dog.
Hazel Nairn, 71, tragically disappeared into the River Don, near Monymusk, Scotland, after the area was hit by severe flooding on November 18, 2022. On Tuesday, detectives released an update to confirm that the remains they had found in the river a month ago belonged to the pensioner. Her remains were discovered on May 7, and underwent identification, police said.
The tragedy took place after Hazel and her friend were swept into the river, which had burst its banks. She was also carrying her West Highland terrier, Rory, at the time. Their disappearance sparked a widespread search operation, but she was never found.
Hazel's daughter, Anneka Gray, 38, shared how she had even taken up kayaking in a desperate bid to locate her mum. She previously told Daily Record: “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. It’s like she vanished into thin air.”
A weather warning had been issued in the area due to the torrential rain and Anneka explained that this led to her mum abandoning her car and walking home. She explained that Hazel's friend had a lucky escape and only avoided being swept away due to her clothes being caught in barbed wire.
Anneka continued: “Because of the flooding, my mum knew she couldn’t take her car over the little bridge she crossed to get home but the route was walkable with wellies. She’d got most of the way home when she met a friend. Mum had Rory in one arm – the water was too deep to walk through – and she had linked her other arm with her friend. They were walking on what was a raised track when they slipped.
“Her friend thinks there was a current that caused the rubble under their wellies to move. They both fell into the water and were dragged by the current, ending up fully submerged in the fields that had been flooded with fast-flowing water. Mum’s friend hit a fence. Her joggers stuck on the barbed wire – that’s what saved her. She could still see Mum but by this time she was a fair distance away.”