Gardaí investigating the disappearance of a woman missing since late March are hoping that DNA tests will confirm whether or not suitcases found near a clothes bank belonged to her.
Gardaí have sent a hairbrush belonging to Tina Satchwell (45) from Youghal, Co Cork to the Forensic Science Ireland laboratory to build a DNA profile. They hope to use this to see whether two suitcases found near a clothes bank at the Tesco car park in Youghal belonged to her.
Ms Satchwell, nee Dingivan, 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, saying he had 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.
Gardaí have confirmed a TV3 report that some three weeks ago Mr Satchwell spotted two suitcases beside the clothes bank at Tesco in Youghal. He thought one of them may have belonged to wife and he rang gardaí.
He waited at the clothes bank for two local officers to arrive and remove the suitcase. Local Garda technical experts have begun taking swabs from the suitcases to be sent for analysis to see whether one or both may have belonged to Ms Satchwell.
Appeal
Gardaí have appealed to anyone who may have seen the suitcases at the clothes bank in the Tesco car park in Youghal or know anything about the suitcases to contact them at Midleton Garda station. The clothes bank area is not covered by CCTV footage.
Gardaí admit to being perplexed by the disappearance of Ms Satchwell, as she had no history of going missing and they describe her disappearance as “out of character” for her. She was devoted to her two dogs and a parrot which she left behind.
She was not working and was not drawing social welfare at the time of her disappearance. Mr Satchwell told gardaí she had taken some €26,000 in cash which they had kept in the house and which were the proceeds of the sale of their house in Fermoy two years ago.
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 to suggest Ms Satchwell had been the victim of foul play.
Gardaí have examined CCTV footage from around Youghal, but found none showing Ms Satchwell, who is 5ft 6in tall with blonde, shoulder-length hair. 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. 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, who is in his early 50s and has done a number of media interviews over the last month, 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.
