THE BODIES of two people have been recovered from Mayo’s river Moy during the search for a third person – a 19 year-old man who has been missing for 10 days.
The body of a missing Roscommon woman was found in the Moy in the town of Foxford yesterday morning, less than 24 hours after the recovery of the body of a 59-year-old man from the river in Ballina.
The man, who has been named as Tommie Helley from Barrett Street in the town, had been assisting in the search for 19-year- old David Higgins, last seen when he fell from a bridge over the river on March 13th.
Ballina mayor Frances McAndrew said local people were “shattered” by the news yesterday.
“The Moy is our jewel, but this is very distressing for all these families and our sympathies go out to them,” she said. Naval Service divers are still assisting in the search for Mr Higgins.
The woman whose body surfaced yesterday has been named as Teresa Loftus, who was in her 40s and from Cloontowart, Lisacul, Co Roscommon. Ms Loftus was last seen on March 4th and her car was found the following day in Foxford. Her death is being treated as accidental.
On Wednesday, Naval Service divers who were called in for the search for Mr Higgins discovered the body of Mr Helley (59), a single man and Ballina resident who was a close friend of David Higgins’s father and had been assisting in the search for his son.
