POLICE officers searching for a missing man from Essex have recovered a body from the River Wharfe.

Although formal identification is yet to take place, police believe the body is of 44-year-old missing Essex man Anthony Smith.

 

 

The discovery was made at Bolton Abbey, in North Yorkshire, by a member of the public yesterday. 

Mr Smith was last seen at at the Red Lion Hotel in Burnsall, also in North Yorkshire, at 4.30am on Friday. Police believed at the time that he may not have been wearing shoes when he went missing. 

 

A North Yorkshire Police spokesman said: "Anthony’s family have been informed of today’s news and our thoughts are with them at this difficult time. 

"We are not currently treating the death as suspicious."