‘She is always on our mind’ – sister of Tina Satchwell pleads for help on anniversary of disappearance

THE sister of missing woman Tina Satchwell (47) said she believes the Cork woman must have had help in disappearing four years ago as she issued a fourth anniversary plea for information on her whereabouts.

Tina vanished without trace from her home in Youghal, Co Cork on March 20 2017.

Despite a massive Garda investigation which included 400 lines of inquiry, 100 hours of CCTV footage and 170 statements, no trace of Tina has been found over the past four years.

Now, her UK-based sister Teresa has issued a heartfelt plea for information on her beloved sister.

"I have one very special message for her - Tina if you are out there, your family is here. Come to us - we love you and will help you in any way possible. If you need us, we will come to you - whatever it takes. Just let us know that you are fine and you are safe," she told Red FM's Neil Prendeville Show.

Teresa urged anyone with information to contact the authorities in Ireland or the UK.

"Please let the police know - take us out of our misery and let us know where she is.

"She is all the time (on our mind) - always and always will be. I do a lot of searching, with papers and stuff, in the hope that she reads them. I do papers in Dublin and Cork, on her anniversary.

"It gets very, very hard for me and my family. It is the not knowing where she is more than anything."

Teresa said her family are very tightknit.

"There are four sisters and three brothers - we grew up very close. I have been in the UK for over 30 years. I seen Tina a few years ago, we went for a walk in the park and we had a heart-to-heart and she was fine then.

"She would speak to her family, Tina would. If she was down she would speak to her family - we are very close.

"(Tina) just wouldn't get up and go. She had been in great form. She was happy. There was nothing out of character.

"As kids growing up, she was always bubbly and playing. Very clingy and very happy. She was always strong growing up - a very independent young girl. She loved life. From day one, she loved her clothes, jewellery or make-up."

Teresa admitted the news of a female skeleton being found in east Cork last January was shocking.

"That was horrendous - that was hard (waiting for the DNA results). It was a relief (that it wasn't her). Knowing that she is still out there somewhere. I would put it this way, if you don't have hope, you have nothing. She is out there, I would hope with all the sharing she will know we are always there for her and we will always be there for her.

"Tina would never walk away from family, no, never.

"It is upsetting, not knowing - wondering where she is, is she safe, does she have enough money? It does go through your head."

Teresa said she believes Tina must have had help in disappearing.

"What I mean is someone must have a hand in helping her to disappear. If you disappear off the face of the Earth with no money or nothing, then you have either had a hand in it or someone helped her to disappear.

"What I am saying is that if someone disappears and they are brought up in a close family and you are close to them, you tell your family where you are going. But my belief is that someone must have helped her disappear. I am hoping she is alive somewhere. But I believe someone must have helped her disappear. You can't just disappear on your own and you can't disappear into thin air.

Gardaí admitted all leads in the case so far have failed to yield any clue as to solving the mystery over what happened to her in 2017.

A senior garda source confirmed that they have no plans, as yet, for any further major searches following major operations off the Youghal coast and in an east Cork woodland.

Ms Satchwell was last seen by her husband, Richard, on March 20 2017 when she asked him to leave their Youghal, Co Cork home on an errand.

She was not at their home when he returned a few hours later and he presumed she had gone to stay with her family.

He reported her missing four days later. A huge garda search operation and an analysis of hours of CCTV security camera footage has failed to yield any clue as to what happened to Tina.

Tina did not have a passport - and there was no indication she had purchased tickets to travel overseas by either plane or ferry.

"At this point, all the indications are that Tina never left Ireland," a Garda source said.

Gardaí searched CCTV footage from all Irish ports and airports without any sighting of Tina being found.

UK police have also checked for Tina at their ports and airports - and at locations in the UK where she used to live.

All such searches have yielded nothing.

Mr Satchwell previously said there was nothing out of the ordinary on March 20 2017 to indicate his wife was about to disappear.

"It was the same as any other morning - she got up and I made her a cup of tea and a slice of toast. It is something I will never forget."

"It wasn't unusual for her to turn around and ask me to go shopping. I thought nothing of it at the time. When I came back, the keys were on the ground. When she didn't come back I thought she was gone to Fermoy," he said.

He raised the alarm four days later when he realised, to his shock, that Tina had not gone to visit relatives in Fermoy.

Two suitcases were missing as well as items of Tina's clothing from the Youghal home on March 20 2017.

However, her beloved dog, Ruby, was left alone in the house. Mr Satchwell also claimed that €26,000 in cash, saved from a property sale and the proceeds of car boot sales, was missing from the property.

In March 2018, Gardaí conducted a major 12 day search of a 40 acre woodland outside Castlemartyr in east Cork.

However, that yielded nothing of significance in the search for Tina.

Online Editors