The husband of a Dublin woman who disappeared in Medjugorje in Bosnia-Herzegovina last September is to travel there this morning after a woman's body was found near the guesthouse where his wife was last seen.
Winnie Brady (59) from Kilbarrack went missing while on pilgrimage with a group of friends from Dublin.
The Department of Foreign Affairs said it is likely that the body is that of Ms Brady and yesterday sent an official from the embassy in the Slovenian capital Ljubljana to liaise with local authorities in Medjugorje.
Ms Brady's husband, Stephen, said officials were "99 per cent sure" the body belonged to his wife. It is understood the remains were found by hunters some three kilometres from Pansion Lola, the guesthouse where Ms Brady was staying.
"It gives us closure. I would have preferred a better outcome, but the way I was feeling, I'd settle for anything. We're just devastated, and to get this feels like a release," Mr Brady told The Irish Times.
"I really thought she would be alive. I thought maybe she just lost her memory, or maybe fell and hit her head, that's what I was hoping for. I was hoping she'd come home," he said.
Ms Brady suffered from arthritis and was unable to accompany her friends to a prayer meeting on the morning of September 6th. She stayed at the guesthouse and went out for a stroll at about 1pm, but was not seen again. Her passport, money, medication and cigarettes were left in her bedroom.
Ms Brady's sister, Dolores Flynn, said the family were in an "awful state", but pleased that they might find "some closure".
"We'll be able to bring her home. She's four months gone last Saturday and it's been a nightmare for us. If it took us 10 years, 20 years to find her, we would have fought all the way to find her," she said.
Ms Flynn and her sister Bernie had recently raised some €10,000 and planned to hire a private detective to resume the investigation into their sister's disappearance. The funds will now be donated to charity.
Despite an initial helicopter search of nearby mountains and of the immediate area in which she was last seen, as well as a separate search involving some 200 volunteers, police found no trace of the missing woman.
A number of pilgrims have disappeared in Medjugorje in recent years. None are believed to have been the victim of a crime, and several are thought to have wandered off paths and got lost in rugged terrain.
