A BODY has been present in the seek for the Revd Captain Katherine Watson, a former army officer and hospital chaplain who was reported missing on Thursday, Northumbria Police reports.
Captain Watson, aged 50, was last seen within the Heaton Road area of Newcastle, at about 1 p.m. on Thursday. “Extensive searches have been carried out since then to locate her,” the police said in an announcement posted on social media on Friday.
“Sadly, this morning a body was discovered within the Jesmond Dene area. Formal identification has yet to happen, nevertheless it’s believed to be Katherine. Her next of kin have been made aware and are being supported by specially-trained officers.
“This is an incredibly sad end result, and our thoughts are with Katherine’s loved-ones at this difficult time. We proceed to support them and we ask that their privacy is respected. Thank you to everyone who supported our search.”
A joint statement on Friday from the Bishop of Newcastle, Dr Helen-Ann Hartley, and the Bishop of Berwick, the Rt Revd Mark Wroe, said: “It is with a profound sense of sadness and grief that we received the news about Katie, and our first thoughts are along with her partner Emily and their children and all who knew and loved Katie.”
Captain Watson was ordained deacon in 2020. In 2022, she featured in a Channel 4 documentary, Geordie Hospital, in regards to the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, where she had worked for 14 years.
She said in an interview on the time: “We provide chaplaincy 24/7, 12 months a 12 months, and through the pandemic we never went away. Healthcare Chaplaincy is a really specific calling and requires an excellent deal of resilience and life experience.”
Captain Watson served within the Royal Military Police within the Nineteen Nineties. “Once you have got seen genocide first hand on the streets of a European country,” she said in 2022, “there’s nothing left on this planet that may faze you after that. I actually have seen the worst of humanity, and I actually have seen, and proceed to see, the absolute best of it.”
The Bishops’ statement continued: “From her much valued work as a hospital chaplain, which reached beyond the bounds of the North East, to her many colleagues from her past profession, and the sporting and running communities she was an element of, to all of us here within the diocese of Newcastle, we mourn her death with a deep feeling of loss.
“Katie was ordained deacon in 2020 and lived out her vocation in service, compassion, and humility. There is way more that we wish to say but for now we express our grief and our love and prayers to Katie’s family, friends, and colleagues.”
