A stroke victim spent 21 hours locked in a public toilet – as police with sniffer dogs and helicopter crews mounted a huge search for her.
Seventy-eight-year-old Norma Webster was found unconscious in a cubicle when cleaning staff arrived to open the conveniences in the morning.
She had been reported missing by her worried family after failing to return from a trip to her local supermarket.
Now her angry relatives are demanding answers about why the toilets were not checked before they were closed for the night at 8pm.
They have also criticised the way police handled searches of her family members’ homes.
Mrs Webster is recovering from her ordeal in hospital.
And her son, Martin McDonald, 46, said: “The only consolation is that she doesn’t remember the whole thing.
“It’s horrible to think that she was in there all night.
“Obviously, the toilets have just been locked without anybody checking to see if there was anyone inside.”
The alarm was raised by Mrs Webster’s 84-year-old husband James and as fears grew for her safety, helicopters and sniffer dogs were called in.
She was found just 200 yards from the spot where the last confirmed sighting of her was made.
She was captured on CCTV going into a Co-op store around 10.30am – and was found in the public conveniences at 8am the following day.
An urgent review has now been launched by Moray Council to ensure there is no repeat of the incident. The local authority has also apologised to the family.
In the crucial hours after Mrs Webster was reported missing, police searched homes of relatives, as well as carrying out door-to-door inquiries.
Her son, who works for a car dealership in Elgin, said: “I wanted their help.
“I wanted my mum found.
“They came to Elgin to look in my 80-year-old uncle’s house, they looked in my shed, when they could have been looking for her.
“They never said it in so many words, but they were looking for a body.
“They looked in the attic at my mum’s house. My old man’s hardly capable of walking, let along getting in a loft through a three-foot hatch.”
Last night, Mrs Webster was still recovering at Dr Gray’s Hospital in Elgin.
Mr McDonald her condition had “improved a lot” following the stroke.
A Moray Council spokesman said: “The council can only apologise most sincerely to Mrs Webster and her family for what must have been a distressing ordeal for all of them.
“An urgent review of procedures will now be done to ensure that where we operate toilets in partnership with the local community who open and close them, as was the case here, there is no prospect of a similar incident happening again.”
Chief Inspector Stewart Mackie, Police Scotland’s Moray area commander, apologised to relatives if the reasons for the searches were unclear.
He said: “There have been instances in the past where people have been reported missing when they have taken unwell in sheds.
“We certainly did everything we could in terms of the missing person search and used considerable resources.
“We carried out searches in the area where she was last seen and work under the assumption that when toilets are locked up they are checked, clearly that was not the case this time. It’s a very tragic set of circumstances.”
Mrs Webster was reported missing around 5pm on July 31 after failing to return from a trip to Forres High Street, close to the town’s Leys Road public conveniences.
Mr McDonald said: “My father didn’t want to bother anybody but by that time he was extremely worried. He’s 84 and the stress has all been much worse on him.”
