A man arrested on suspicion of murdering missing woman Tina Satchwell following the discovery of human remains in a house in Youghal, Co Cork, was continuing to be questioned by gardaí last night.
The man, aged in his 50s, was arrested on Tuesday but was released without charge on Wednesday. He was arrested again at a bus shelter in Youghal at about noon on Thursday and taken to Cobh Garda station for further questioning.
The suspect is being held under section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, which allows gardaí to detain suspects for up to 24 hours before they have to be charged or released.
Gardaí were saying little about the discovery of human remains in the house last night, but sources believe they are those of Ms Satchwell, who was reported missing by her husband Richard Satchwell on March 24th, 2017.
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It may be Friday before DNA tests and dental records confirm the identity of the deceased.
The remains were found at about 9pm on Wednesday night by Garda scenes of crime examiners who used kango hammers, pickaxes and shovels to break up and remove a concrete floor in a stairwell on the ground floor of a three-storey house on Grattan Street after cadaver dog Fern got a scent through the concrete.
The homeowner is understood to have had a brick wall built beside the stairs to close off a side view to the stairwell. Gardaí believe the works were carried out shortly after Ms Satchwell’s disappearance as it was noted when they visited and searched the house in June 2017 as part of the investigation.
[ Gardaí reviewing file became suspicious over inaccuracies in witness statementsOpens in new window ]
The construction of the sidewall after Ms Satchwell’s disappearance in March 2017 was picked up by detectives carrying out a review of the investigation file in recent months. It was one of the first areas within the house that a search team began examining after entering the property on Tuesday.
They found the decomposed body buried in earth almost a metre down and preserved the scene, which was examined by Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margot Bolster before the remains were removed to Cork University Hospital for a postmortem.
The results of the postmortem had not been released on Thursday night for operational reasons and sources were remaining tight-lipped as to whether the remains showed any obvious signs of the person having encountered violence such as broken bones or fractures.
The remains were removed from the scene just before 3.30pm yesterday after Youghal parish priest, Fr Bill Bermingham, said prayers for the dead. Locals later began leaving bouquets of flowers with messages hoping that Ms Satchwell might now rest in peace.
