ITALIAN AUTHORITIES have confirmed through DNA tests, that a body found near Lake Maggiore in northern Italy last October, is that of missing Irish woman Mairéad Geary who disappeared 12 months earlier while on holidays.
The 81-year-old was in the resort of Stresa on the lake close to the Italian-Swiss border, when she went missing in October 2008. Ms Geary had been on holidays with a group of 40 pensioners from Limerick at the time.
According to reports of her disappearance, she left her hotel saying she planned to take a cable car to the summit of nearby Mount Mottarone. When she got there she started out on her own for a walk. A major search was conducted without success and family members including her two sons travelled to Italy at the time.
The family expressed their gratitude “to the Soccorso Alpino, the local Carabineri in Stresa, An Garda Síochána, the staff at the Embassy of Ireland in Rome and to all the volunteers who assisted in the search for Mairéad”.
