Gardaí investigating the disappearance of a 45-year-old woman missing from her home in Youghal in Co Cork for five months have concluded both land and sea searches without finding any trace of the woman.
A Garda spokesman had told The Irish Times the searches in Youghal were initiated on Saturday as "a result of information received and ongoing inquiries into the disappearance of Tina Satchwell" but would not be drawn on the nature of the information received.
Ms Satchwell , originally Tina Dingivan from St Bernard's Place in Fermoy, has been missing from her home on Grattan Street in Youghal since March 20th when her husband, Richard returned from a shopping trip to Dungarvan and found she had left the house.
Mr Satchwell reported her missing to gardaí in Youghal four days later on March 24th, said he waited a few days as he thought she may have needed to “get her head straight” after what he said were several months of anxiety.
Ms Satchwell was not working or drawing social welfare at the time of her disappearance but Mr Satchwell told gardaí she had taken some €26,000 in cash that the couple had kept in the house and which were the proceeds of the sale of their house in Fermoy two years ago.
Members of the Garda Water Unit from Athlone carried out a series of dives just off the quays in the centre of Youghal for local woman Ms Satchwell on Saturday.
The North Cork Garda Divisional Search team joined with an army search team from Collins Barracks in Cork and search dogs to comb scrubland and vegetation on Golf Links Road in the town in the hope of finding some trace of the missing woman.
But neither search on land or sea, which involved up to 40 gardaí under Supt Eamon O'Neill of Midleton Garda station, found any trace of Ms Satchwell and concluded on Saturday late afternoon though further searches on both land and sea may resume at some date in the future, a garda source said.
Mr Satchwell, who is in his early 50s, was informed by gardaí that they were planning to undertake both sea and land searches in Youghal on Saturday but he was not in the town to witness the operations as his work for a tyre distributor took him away from home on Saturday.
Gardaí are understood to be perplexed by the disappearance of Ms Satchwell as she has no history of going missing and they describe her disappearance as “out of character” for the woman who was devoted to her two dogs and a parrot whom she left behind.
Garda technical experts carried out a forensic examination of the couple’s three storey home at Grattan Street and the couple’s car in early June but the examinations found nothing suspicious to suggest that Ms Satchwell had been the victim of foul play.
Gardaí have examined CCTV cameras from around Youghal but could find no footage showing Ms Satchwell, who is 5ft 6in tall with blonde shoulder length hair, while internal CCTV footage from Bus Éireann buses servicing the town also yielded no sign of the missing woman.
Ms Satchwell, who left her mobile phone at her house, did not have a passport but gardaí have checked ferry ports and airports to see if she may have travelled to the UK where she first met Mr Satchwell when she lived in Leicester 26 years ago but they have found no sighting of her anywhere.
Meanwhile Mr Satchwell has done a number of media interviews over the last few months, has issued an appeal for his wife to make contact with him or with the gardaí just to let him know that she is safe and well.
“Tina come home.”There’s nobody mad at you. My arms are open. The pets are missing you. “I just can’t go on not knowing. Even if you just ring the guards, let people know that you’re alright,” said Mr Satchwell in an RTÉ Crimecall appeal at the end of June.
