A BODY has been found in the search 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 in 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 a statement posted on social media on Friday.
“Sadly, this morning a body was discovered in the Jesmond Dene area. Formal identification has yet to take place, however it is 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 outcome, and our thoughts are with Katherine’s loved-ones at this difficult time. We continue 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 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, about the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, where she had worked for 14 years.
She said in an interview at the time: “We provide chaplaincy 24/7, 365 days a year, and during the pandemic we never went away. Healthcare Chaplaincy is a very specific calling and requires a great deal of resilience and life experience.”
Captain Watson served in the Royal Military Police in the 1990s. “Once you have seen genocide first hand on the streets of a European country,” she said in 2022, “there is nothing left in the world that can faze you after that. I have seen the worst of humanity, and I have seen, and continue to see, the very 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 career, and the sporting and running communities she was a part of, to all of us here in 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 much more that we want to say but for now we express our grief and our love and prayers to Katie’s family, friends, and colleagues.”