A massive search was called to a halt yesterday when a missing pensioner bumped into the police officers who were looking for him.
Kenneth Duffus, 82, was reported missing by his concerned family after he left his house at Carron, near Aberlour, on Saturday and went more than 24 hours without contacting them.
Amid growing fears that he may have fallen into the nearby River Spey, coastguard crews, a police helicopter and officers with sniffer dogs scoured its banks in a hunt for Mr Duffus.
But the search was called off at about 3pm when the octogenarian returned from a visit to Aberdeen, and met police officers while walking back to his rural property.
A police spokeswoman confirmed that he was “safe and well” when traced, and had been staying with friends in Milltimber – a suburb on the west of the Granite City.
She added that Mr Duffus was a keen walker and his family had grown concerned that he might have suffered an injury while outdoors.
Police chiefs had suspected that Mr Duffus may have been in Aberdeen – as the last recorded sighting of him had been in its Murtle Den area at 5pm on Saturday.
But, given the recent cold weather and his age, they decided it was best to comb the area near the pensioner’s home in case he had hurt himself after coming back to Moray.
They also said it was “out of character” for Mr Duffus not to contact friends and neighbours for a sustained period of time.
Coastguard teams were called from Burghead, Lossiemouth and Portsoy to assist with a search along the Spey, while officers carried out door-to-door inquiries in both Aberlour and Aberdeen.
The search followed incidents this year where pensioners’ bodies were recovered from the River Spey.
The body of Mosstodloch man Peter Walker was discovered on its banks at Garmouth in July.
Both Kathleen Edward, from Aberlour, and Rosemary Laing, of Rothes, died in its fast-flowing waters in January.
