THE final curtain has been drawn on a dramatic riverside incident which saw emergency services combine to recover two bodies from the Thames in Grays earlier this year.

On Thursday, 13 February Thurrock Nub News reported live from the scene as police, ambulance and fire service crews worked together in an operation by the side of the Wharf pub after the body of a woman was spotted on the river bank. During the incident, a second body was discovered.

The second body was later identified as Elvis Iliev, 28, who lived in Maidstone, Kent, who had jumped from the QEII bridge five weeks prior to his body being discovered. An inquest into his death delivered an open verdict.

The woman was Manijeh Thomas, 58,who had been born in Iran, but lived in Grays. She had been reported missing on the morning of February 13.

Essex Police classed her as a high risk missing person and subsequently launched an investigation and she was found unresponsive on the riverside on Wharf Road by her support worker, Essex Coroner's Court was told this week.

Police confirmed that there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding her death. The coroner, Mrs Caroline Beasley-Murray explained how she had considered a conclusion of an accident, but that there was also not enough evidence for that.

Instead, she gave an open verdict. Mrs Beasley-Murray also praised the dignity Manijeh's daughter had shown during the course of the inquest.