A woman whose husband went for a walk almost a year ago and never came back has urged missing mum Nicola Bulley's family to "keep the faith".
Lucy Creaney said that "people don't just disappear" and is convinced her missing husband Finn is still alive.
Finn went missing on Friday, March 25 last year after he started a lone hike in Loch Naver, Sutherland, but he never came home.
The dad to a five-year-old daughter from Tain, Scotland, has not been seen since and his wife said that the uncertainty of his whereabouts was causing her “torture” and “pain”.
As in the Nicola Bulley case, the police and search and rescue teams have covered much ground to help find him, with the hunt covered on foot, by air and with divers in the water.
Lucy said she believed that Mr Creaney, who would now be aged 33, is still alive “because there’s nothing to suggest he is not”.
She told the Telegraph: "As the family of missing mother Nicola Bulley will know, the uncertainty is torture, it is pain.
"You don’t know how it will end, but you have to believe you will find the person you’ve lost.
"People don’t just vanish off the face of the earth.”
She added that Mr Creaney was an “experienced and confident survivalist” who had intended to embark on a lone 40-kilometre hike, despite the unseasonably hot spring weekend.
A family member had dropped him off at a caravan park on the B873 road at 2.15pm, and he had planned to walk around the loch before heading south to Golspie.
This was his final confirmed sighting, with his phone cutting off at 1.47pm in the village of Lairg.
The last time his wife heard from him was in a voicemail he left at 12.52pm, where he told her “I love you lots and I’m really proud of you”.
She had expected Mr Creaney home around noon on Sunday, but when he had still not appeared by Monday she reported him missing to the police.
Mrs Creaney says her husband had no reason to disappear of his own volition, describing him as a “lovely, happy, giving soul”, as she urged Nicola’s family to stay strong.
She said: “What I’d say to Nicola’s family is keep the faith.
“You can’t control the situation, that’s one of the hardest things in a missing person case, but you can believe in the person you love and try not to give in to despair.”
