22nd February 2014

It has now been a month since Maya Elliott, 26, failed to return from a routine interview with the merpeople in Loch Lomond, Scotland. Elliot, daughter to the Head Healer Miranda Storm, visited the Loch on Ministry business while working on a case. She ingested gillyweed in order to be able to breathe for the requisite time, but she never returned to the surface.

Throughout the past weeks, a combined task force from both the Department of Law Enforcement and the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures have been searching the lake for Miss Elliott. It is today that they have concluded their search.

In regards to the conclusion of the search, the Ministry were contacted for comment. "All work to do with magical creatures and beings carries an inherent risk." Balfour Spectre, Head of the DMRC informs the Prophet, "While this doesn't make Miss Elliot's disappearance any less tragic, we trust that there is comfort in the worthiness of her endeavour. Our thoughts and sympathies are with her loved ones."

Elliott leaves behind a four year old daughter who has been taken into the care of Head Healer Storm.

When asked for a statement, Healer Storm had this to say: “Yet again, the Ministry has failed to protect those working for them. My daughter is still in the Loch, and it is their duty to find her because they sent her down there.”