Tina Satchwell’s husband claims wife’s friend’s number not on phone

The husband of missing Cork woman Tina Satchwell has claimed he was unable to contact her best friend to find out if she knew where his wife might have gone when she disappeared last March because he did not have the woman’s phone number.

Richard Satchwell told The Neil Prendeville Show on Cork's Red FM that he questioned now how he had handled his wife's disappearance on March 20th 2017 and the fact that he waited four days before he notified gardaí that his wife was missing.

“I question naturally the way I handled it, obviously – was I right or was I wrong – my doctor says ‘I think you were right to wait the four days to give her time’ ,” said Mr Satchwell. He previously said that he believed that his wife needed time and space “to get her head straight”.

Gardaí are searching the Womanagh river in Mitchel's Wood near Castlemartyr, Co Cork, for clues about what happened to Ms Satchwell.

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Informed Garda sources played down media reports that a number of “items of interest” had been found on Monday. One source said they very much doubted whether the items – believed to be clothing – would advance their investigation in any significant way after they were forensically analysed.

Gardaí say that they have now searched more than half of the 16.2-hectare (40-acre) site and they expect to complete the search by Friday.

Almost daily

When Mr Prendeville asked whether Mr Satchwell considered contacting his wife's best friend soon after her disappearance for their home in Youghal, he said that the woman's number was not on his wife's phone, which she had left behind.

Pushed on whether he thought it was strange that his wife would not have her best friend's phone number saved on her phone, Mr Satchwell said that the two friends met up almost daily when the Satchwells lived in Fermoy so there was no need for Ms Satchwell to ring her friend.

“I don’t have her number [the unnamed best friend] they never used to ring, they used to meet practically daily – the same place, same time – her best friend was [from] outside Fermoy it’s the way they were – they used to meet when Tina used to swim and they became very close.

“I suppose people have their own reasons for the way they get in touch with one another, I suppose when you are meeting every day, what’s the point in phoning each other?”

Mr Satchwell revealed that while his wife could drive, he would often drive her from their new home in Youghal to Fermoy to meet up with her friend and he would spend time with his wife’s family.

He had met the friend last Tuesday during a visit to Fermoy to film a piece for an RTÉ report and the friend had told him that she believed that Ms Satchwell was still alive and that she was in the UK but she had no proof of that, he said.

Mr Satchwell also confirmed that his wife had hit in a temper on occasion but he stressed that it was “a flash temper” and was never intended and moments later his wife would be crying and apologising to him. He said he never struck her back in retaliation.