Gardaí have rearrested a man for questioning about the suspected murder of Tina Satchwell following the discovery of human remains during a search of a house in Youghal, east Cork, early this morning.
The man, in his 50s, was arrested in Youghal town centre at around 12pm on Thursday and taken to Cobh Garda station for questioning about the disappearance of Ms Satchwell. She had been reported missing from her home in Youghal by her husband, Richard Satchwell, in March 2017.
Gardaí had first arrested the man at 5pm on Tuesday evening at his house in Youghal and brought him to Cobh Garda station for questioning. He was released without charge at 5pm on Wednesday with gardaí confirming the release and saying the investigation was ongoing.
Shortly after 9am on Thursday morning, a Garda technical team resumed their search of his house, which had started on Tuesday, and began dismantling alteration work that had been carried out on the property since Ms Satchwell’s disappearance in 2017.
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Gardaí are remaining tight-lipped about the precise location of where the human remains were found, but it is understood that the skeletal remains were under floorboards in a downstairs room of the home, which is currently cordoned off behind screens.
The Garda requested the services of the State Pathologist’s Office and Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margot Bolster attended at the scene to carry out a preliminary examination of the remains. The remains were still at the scene as of early Thursday afternoon.
Consultant forensic anthropologist Dr Laureen Murphy is also due to attend at the scene and examine the remains before they are removed to Cork University Hospital for a full postmortem examination, which gardaí hope will establish the cause of death.
It’s understood that Dr Bolster took some DNA swabs from the remains which will be forwarded to Forensic Science Ireland. They will be compared with DNA samples taken from one of Ms Satchwell’s family, the Dingivans from Fermoy, to confirm the remains are those of the missing woman.
Gardaí said on Thursday afternoon at a briefing that they are continuing to keep the family of Tina Satchwell updated on developments in the case.
Supt Adrian Gamble of Midleton Garda Station confirmed that a male in his 50s had been arrested in Youghal earlier today on suspicion of murder, and he is currently detained under the provisions of Section 4 Criminal Justice Act 1984 at a garda station in Co Cork. He appealed to anyone who may have information on the murder of Ms Satchwell, no matter how insignificant they may think that information is, to contact the investigation team at Midleton Garda Station, the confidential Garda tip line or any Garda station.
Garda technical experts concluded a search of a lock-up shed near Burgess between Youghal and Killeagh which was being rented by the suspect and garda sources have indicated that some electronic equipment has been seized which will be sent for examination by garda experts.
Ms Satchwell, then aged 45, was reported missing by Mr Satchwell to gardaí in Fermoy on March 24th, 2017. He told gardaí that he returned from shopping in Dungarvan to their home on Grattan St in Youghal four days earlier to discover Ms Satchwell was gone.
The decision to arrest the man on Tuesday followed an extensive review of the file on Ms Satchwell’s disappearance by detectives from the Cork North and West Division, which began in November 2021 and saw them forensically examine the detailed file.
As part of their original investigation, gardaí followed 400 different lines of inquiry, viewed 100 hours of CCTV footage and took 170 witness statements. All of these were closely re-examined by the Garda review team as they tried to establish what happened to Ms Satchwell.
The review enabled Cork gardaí to make a case at national level for the case to reclassified from a missing person inquiry to a murder investigation.
The decision to upgrade the case and provide the necessary funds meant that, in August, the Garda was able to draw an investigation plan to enable them to both arrest the suspect and secure his home as a crime scene to allow a major search operation take place.
