News Flash!

Apologies for interrupting the stream of steadily decreasing flow of posts but this is really quite unusual news. I promise, promise, promise that in my next post, I would resume the story-telling of my trip. But for now...

In today's Evening Express:

Tributes paid to 'quiet' family man Frank, 61

Body was found on river bank

-Moreen Simpson-

Tributes have been paid to 61-year-old Frank Innes who was found dead after going missing from his Bieldside home.

A massive air and ground search was called off after his body was discovered on the banks of the River Dee.

The grandfather left his home around 3:30am dressed only in pyjamas and barefoot.

His wife Valerie raised the alarm and police, RAF and Coastguards scoured the area from Bieldside to Bridge of Dee for more than three hours. A member of the public found the body on the edge of the Robert Gordon University campus yesterday.

Shocked neighbours in Earlspark - Crescent spoke of their sadness and sympathy for the family.

One said: "Frank was a very quiet, family-orientated man. I would never have expected anything like this to happen. I saw him on Sunday morning washing his car and he seemed his usual self. He loved spending time with his grandchildren. When I heard the helicopters I'd no idea what was happening. When I was told they were searching for Frank I was stunned. My heart goes out to Valerie and the family."

The search involved coastguard teams from Aberdeen, Portlethen and Stonehaven who searched the eight miles of river bank between Maryculter and Bridge of Dee.

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution's all-weather boat and inshore lifeboat and the RAF Kinloss Mountain Rescue Team were also involved.

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Shocking! Steph, Julia and Elli all heard the helicopters because "it was very loud" and "they were practically on top of us". So it's very shocking that I managed to sleep through it... But then again, I've been up to all hours - read: 6am - working on my essays.

The news did creep me out a bit though... I'm not totally morbid, ya know? Yes, even though it was my childhood ambition to be a forensic pathologist, "Simpson's Forensic Medicine" is on my shelf for my leisure reading and I've spent a lot of Friday nights watching "The FBI files" and "The New Detectives" to catch scenes of gruesome crimes.

But still... my point is, I was creeped out. Do you know how freaking close that river is to my accommodation?! 2 mins walk away? I walk past it every time I go to Uni! My flatmates love taking walks along that river (I don't go on walks often but even then, I've walked along that path a couple of times).

I keep thinking it could have been any one of us that found the body...