'Time has stood still for six years,' says Tina Satchwell's sister
Teresa Dingivan, sister of missing woman Tina Satchwell.
Monday marks the sixth anniversary of the disappearance of Cork woman Tina Satchwell.
Birthdays have come and gone, christenings, funerals, family Christmases made sombre by the dreadful empty space at the dinner table.
Tina Satchwell, the much-loved, vibrant, bubbly blond who loved her family, her dogs, fashion and car boot sales, vanished from her home in Youghal, east Cork, on March 20, 2017.
Her disappearance at the age of 45 remains a mystery with no sighting of the Fermoy-born woman since.
Despite a massive garda investigation which included some 400 lines of inquiry, more than 100 hours of CCTV footage, and 170 statements, no trace of Ms Satchwell has ever been found.
A senior garda source told the that someone in east Cork must have information on the missing woman.
“It’s very unusual for someone to just completely disappear,” they said.
“There have to be people there that know something.
“The problem is, sometimes people think that they saw something but they think we already know about it, or they think it’s not that important. But sometimes that one piece of the puzzle opens up the door to something else.
“If you think you know something at all, please contact gardaí.”
Ms Satchwell’s sister, Teresa Dingivan, has also issued a fresh appeal for information on the sixth anniversary of her disappearance.
“It’s six years. So many days, weeks, months, years not knowing. Our hearts are breaking not knowing where she is. Someone must have known where she went, someone must know what happened to her. Just please put our minds at rest.”
Ms Dingivan was trawling through newspaper clippings and investigation files this week, searching again for some missing clue that may help unlock the mystery.
“We’re at a loss. You would have thought you’d have sightings the first year, the second year, but as the years go on, you wonder what happened to her. Is she out there?
“Just put our minds at rest. Bring closure to us.”
Remembering her sister as a child, Ms Dingivan said: “She was lovely, well looked after, polite. We were a close family. She was loved, happy, free-going, a lovely young girl.
“We lived on a quiet street [in Fermoy] and we’d all play on the street with our friends. She was always with us. She’d sit on the step with us and play. My parents adored her. She was the youngest girl out of five girls, there were three boys too.”
Ms Satchwell moved to England when she was 16, and lived with Ms Dingivan and their mum.
“We used to go for dinner, go shopping. I’ve never known a girl who loved clothes and jewellery as much as Tina.
“She was there when I had my firstborn. She brought her this little bunny outfit, it was so cute. I’ll always remember it.
“I have good memories of her.
“We always supported each other.”
It was in England in the months after her arrival that she met her husband, lorry driver Richard Satchwell, whose family lived a few doors down from Ms Satchwell’s new UK home.
Mr Satchwell is the last known person to see his wife alive.
He said that he brought her tea and toast that morning and she asked him to go to nearby Dungarvan for some shopping.
He said that he gave her a 'peck' and said he’d be back in two hours.
When he returned, he said she was not there.
She had no passport. Her mobile phone was left in the house, as were her beloved dogs, Ruby and Heidi. Identification, including her birth certificate were also found at the house.
Her husband said that two suitcases were missing, as was €26,000 in cash – money they had saved from the sale of a house and from car boot sales.
He reported her missing four days later.
He said that he assumed she had gone to visit family in Fermoy so delayed raising the alarm.
Gardaí conducted a major investigation which included searches of nearby scrubland, woods and waterways and an exhaustive trawl of CCTV footage from ports and airports.
Repeated TV and media appeals have called on the public for information to help gardaí find Ms Satchwell.
The case continues to perplex gardaí and the public, while causing huge suffering to Ms Satchwell’s family and loved ones.
Teresa believes that someone else must be involved in Tina’s disappearance because her sister would never choose to walk out on her family and all the people who love her.
“You can’t just vanish off the face of the earth. She had no bank cards with her, no ID. Someone else was involved in her disappearance,” Ms Dingivan previously told the Irish Examiner.
"It’s like time has stood still these past six years.”
Ms Satchwell was last seen in public at a car boot sale in Carrigtwohill, Co Cork, with her husband, the day before she vanished.
And she was reportedly last seen by her husband, Richard Satchwell, at 10am on March 20, 2017.
Gardaí conducted a full forensic examination of her property following her disappearance.
They also examined her mobile phone records and bank accounts to see if there was any activity since her disappearance. There was none.
Dives off the quays in Youghal were conducted by the Garda Water Unit and naval divers searched the harbour.
Garda search teams were joined by the army from Collins Barracks in Cork to search scrubland in Youghal.
Interpol was contacted to help search for Ms Satchwell abroad.
Richard claimed to have discovered two suitcases in a Tesco carpark but forensic examinations determined they did not belong to his missing wife.
The most recent official major targeted search for Ms Satchwell was in March 2018 when 60 gardaí thoroughly searched and examined Mitchel’s Wood outside Castlemartyr in east Cork.
This search was sparked by information from someone who said they saw a man, with links to Tina, at the woods in suspicious circumstances.
There was also a possibility that he spotted the man entering the woods with a blonde woman but leaving without her.
Cadavar dogs, trained to detect decomposing bodies, army engineers, a 60-strong trained garda search team examined the woods.
But nothing of significance was discovered.
Gardaí also searched CCTV footage from all ports and airports, including those in North with the assistance of the PSNI. But there was no sighting of Ms Satchwell.
British police also searched for Ms Satchwell at their ports and airports, and at locations in northern England where she had previously lived and had friends and family.
Mr Satchwell has repeatedly denied that he had anything to do with his wife’s disappearance.
He has not been identified by gardaí as a suspect in his wife’s case.
The couple were together some 26 years. After her disappearance, he appealed for help on RTÉ’s .
He said that he initially believed that his wife had been suffering from anxiety in the months before her disappearance but did not want to take antidepressant medication.
However, Ms Dingivan said that friends of her sister described her as being happy in the days and weeks before her disappearance.
Teresa said that Tina would never torment her family by disappearing and not making contact.
“She wasn’t that kind of person. She was really close to her family,” Teresa said.
Teresa believes that Tina is still in Ireland as gardaí found no trace of her leaving the island.
“Tina was funny and bubbly and independent. She was kind and considerate,” Ms Dingivan said.
“She was a really good sister and adored her family.
“I’ll never stop looking for her.”
Her sister has appealed for “even the smallest clue” that could help solve the mystery of her disappearance.
“Someone out there knows something. Someone knows what happened to Tina, someone had a hand in her disappearance,” Ms Dingivan said. “Even the smallest clue could help.”
Mr Satchwell declined to comment when contacted.
Gardaí continue to investigate and appeal for information in tracing the whereabouts of Ms Satchwell.
Anyone who has any information, no matter how insignificant they think it may be, can contact Midleton Garda Station on 021-4621550, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111 or any garda station.
