Searches intensify for missing Limerick teenager

Hundreds seek Chloe Kineslla (15) last seen at her home on Saturday

Chloe Kinsella (15) who is missing from her home in Limerick. Photograph: Liam Burke//Press 22
Chloe Kinsella (15) who is missing from her home in Limerick. Photograph: Liam Burke//Press 22

Searches have intensified for a 15-year-old Limerick girl who has been missing from her home for the past five days.

Chloe Kinsella was last seen on Saturday September 28th when she arrived home to Kenyon Avenue, Kileely, Limerick at 8pm and went to her bedroom.

Some 20 minutes later, it is understood she left through an upstairs window

Hundreds of people have joined in the search for the teenager described by her sister as a “normal teenager girl who loves her fashion and style”.

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Linsey Kinsella (23) said it was completely out of character for her younger sister not to come home at night.

Chloe is the youngest girl in a family of nine children. Her sister described her as a “mammy’s girl” and said she is very close to her mother Shirley .

“She is the youngest daughter now and is a real mammy’s girl. She would always be home on time or ring one of us to ask mam if she could stay at her friends a bit longer, She didn’t have her phone with her on Saturday when she left and she wouldn’t have had any money. My mother is in bits,” Ms Kinsella said.

This is not the first time heartache has visited the Kinsella family. In 2004 Chloe’s younger sister Sophie died aged four from a heart illness.

Last seen wearing a white top, shorts and black tights, Chloe may also have been wearing a pink pyjama bottoms with black Ugg boots and a pink hoody.

On Friday night before her disappearance, Chloe had queued for hours to get a coveted One Direction concert ticket.

The popular teen had been out with friends on Saturday evening before returning home prior to her disappearance. She is described as being 1.5m (5 ft), with fair or light brown shoulder length hair and blue eyes.

She is a fifth class student at St Nessan’s Community College in Limerick and some of her classmates were given time day off to help with the search operation. Garda co-ordinated searches with adult volunteers and community leaders are now in place.

Hundreds of people have been involved in helping to locate Chloe, while local businesses have also provided sustenance to those looking for the teenager.

The Shannon-based Rescue 115 Coast Guard Helicopter has also been dispatched to search the River Shannon and the Limerick Marine Search and Rescue Service has also been drafted in to carry out water searches.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Mayorstone Garda Station on at 061 456980 or on the Garda confidential line 1800 666 111.

Chief Superintendent Dave Sheahan said that every effort is being made to locate her and is also appealing for the “crucial help of the public”.

A Facebook page called ’help find Chloe Kinsella' was set up in the wake of her disappearance and already has generated almost 40,000 hits.

Searches are being co-ordinated from Kileely Community Centre in groups 50 and only those over 18 are permitted to take part.

Gardaí at Mayorstone are conducting investigations and can be contacted at 061 456980 or on the garda confidential line 1800 666 111.