Clinical psychologists are advising police in an attempt to trace a missing Northern Ireland woman they fear may have been murdered, it emerged today.
Woods and stretches of three rivers have been searched to find Mrs Attracta Harron (65) who vanished after attending Mass in Lifford, Co Donegal over two months ago.
Her family believe she could still be alive, but police admitted today they will treat her disappearance as a possible murder inquiry if they are unable to find her body in the waters of the Foyle, Finn and Mourne rivers in Tyrone, Derry and Donegal.
A new search involving victim recovery dogs from South Yorkshire police and specialist equipment is due to end tomorrow.
Inspector John Gilmore said: "If we don't find Mrs Harron, or any of her belongings by that stage, then the focus will be a possible abduction and murder."
One man has been questioned and released without charge.
Mother of five Mrs Harron, a retired librarian from Strabane, Co Tyrone, went missing on December 11th on her way home from Mass in neighbouring Lifford, Co Donegal.
The driver of a red Cavalier car who was seen talking to a woman fitting Mrs Harron's description - she was wearing a bright red duffle coat - has yet to come forward. Police also checked a second possible sighting - a woman bleeding from a headwound, sitting in the front passenger seat of a red car near the village of Sion Mills, three miles away, which was travelling at high speed towards the border.
A car was later found burned out not far away.
Mr Gilmore confirmed two clinical psychologists had been advising officers in helping to build a profile of the type of person who might have been involved, if they can establish that Mrs Harron had been murdered.
He said: "Murder has always been a line of inquiry, right from the start. We don't think she would have got into a car with a stranger."
Mrs Harron's husband, however, believes his wife may still be alive after a woman fitting her description was spotted in Dublin in a confused state just days after she went missing.