Tina Satchwell *Mod note in op*

There is any amount of speculation about Tina Satchwell - but this doesn't really help to identify the skeletal remains that were found.

I have to say, when I read about an older women, possibly in a nightie, wearing a cross, my first thought was of some old pensioner, maybe with a bit of dementia, wandered off from some nursing-home or convent - which just assumed that she had gone home - and no living family to notice she was missing!

Because dying in a ditch beside the railway line is just exactly what does happen to old confused or homeless people, who are sleeping rough. A few every winter.

No I doubt it. .A missing resident of a nursing home would have been notified to the gardai. If she lived at home it is likely that she would have had some Community care nurses to visit her occasionally.

Hard to imagine that an elderly lady would go wandering around in her night clothes and not be missed.

In that other case - the bones found at Rathmines last April, quite near a block of flats - the remains were identified within a couple of weeks and the deceased was named about one month after the remains were found.

So that is a sort of guideline time-frame before these female bones are identified.
That being said, they may not even be female - first impressions can deceive.

Day Lewin wrote: »

In that other case - the bones found at Rathmines last April, quite near a block of flats - the remains were identified within a couple of weeks and the deceased was named about one month after the remains were found.

So that is a sort of guideline time-frame before these female bones are identified.
That being said, they may not even be female - first impressions can deceive.

I might be naive but I tend to believe that the assistant State Pathologist and the Forensic Anthropologist who have both been working on this case since the remains were found would have a fair idea what to look for to determine the gender.

julyjane wrote: »

Dungarvan is to the east of Youghal and Midleton is to the west. Due to some one way systems in Youghal town I think he would have had to head east to get onto the Youghal bypass whereby one would then turn right for Dungarvan or left for Midleton but that could mean nothing.

I'd find it hard to believe that nobody knew them. In a small town people get noticed by the people in the local shop (hardly going to go to Dungarvan every time you need a carton of milk or loaf of bread), the people in apache pizza, the postman, the hardware/DIY merchants if you're doing up a house, tradespeople, the auctioneer, the people in the petrol station, suppliers of solid fuel or home heating oil, hairdressers, other dog walkers etc.

A guy from Youghal I know saws no one he spoke to there seemed to know them, it would have been around the time the story was coming out first not long after she disappeared that we were discussing it. It seems like they really did keep to themselves.

corks finest wrote: »

It's unbelievable that no one saw anything, well to me anyway, as in we're an inquisitive lot here in Cork and between postal/other delivery ppl, taxis etc etc obviously someone knows or saw something

I think one of the things there is that they were both fairly new to youghal having only moved there the year previously and had no family there. Youghal is a seaside town whose population can nearly double during holidays. Lots of people come to stay in holiday homes or mobile homes and leave again. Ditto day trippers all year round. It wouldn't be unusual to see people coming and going and pay little attention to them.

Cona wrote: »

[QUOTE How far is that dig from Fitzgerald's bridge? I'm just wondering because I assume that they have tracked his journey the whole way that night and if he had pulled off at any junction they would know about it (and know where to dig)

Quite close, especially coming from Carrigtwohill. In fact, it would be directly on route, if they had taken the back roads as opposed to main roads.

If the guards were tracking this journey via his/her mobile phone, it would be interesting to know how accurate the cell triangulation would be? I dont think it pinpoints exact locations...Maybe the know they were stopped in the vicinity and mixed with the sighting they assumed it was in the woods by Castlemartyr

All speculation of course and please dont think of it in any other way...

It wouldn't fit with the body found wearing night clothes, that they were on their home from the market.

Cona wrote: »

Has that been confirmed for sure?

Sorry - mixed reporting on what clothing was found.

Rows Grower wrote: »

I think it was the biggest search operation ever carried out in the state, there was massive resources put into it.

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/news/search-for-missing-tina-satchwell-in-castlemartyr-woods-ends-36711839.html

Ain't necessarily so. I mean, I can recall a VERY large and ambitious search operation that was conducted in Dublin, (after a tip-off in a completely different case) - that was also apparently fruitless.

But here's the thing: the Gardaí really can't afford to ignore a tip-off, of any kind.
Imagine if the witness reported something that might have been vaguely suspicious, in approximately the right area (this applies to any case, any case at all - murders, missing persons, whatever)

and suppose the Guards just shrugged it off and didn't really search hard;

Years later, when "that body" is found "right there" just imagine the hue and cry!!!
The headlines!!

"The Guards were advised of something by a helpful member of the public, and they did nothing!!" -
Well I'm sure you can imagine.

and sometimes even the smallest scrap of info can be useful...

- - so they may have searched, and found nothing, and it might have a waste of effort and money, but they still had to do it, do you see?

Day Lewin wrote: »

Ain't necessarily so. I mean, I can recall a VERY large and ambitious search operation that was conducted in Dublin, (after a tip-off in a completely different case) - that was also apparently fruitless.

But here's the thing: the Gardaí really can't afford to ignore a tip-off, of any kind.
Imagine if the witness reported something that might have been vaguely suspicious, in approximately the right area (this applies to any case, any case at all - murders, missing persons, whatever)

and suppose the Guards just shrugged it off and didn't really search hard;

Years later, when "that body" is found "right there" just imagine the hue and cry!!!
The headlines!!

"The Guards were advised of something by a helpful member of the public, and they did nothing!!" -
Well I'm sure you can imagine.

and sometimes even the smallest scrap of info can be useful...

- - so they may have searched, and found nothing, and it might have a waste of effort and money, but they still had to do it, do you see?

Ehhh, sorry to break it ya after all your typing but everyone is aware of that.

Cona wrote: »

Ya...the point I was making was that the guards would have to of exhausted other areas for her going missing before spending €€€ on a huge dig operation. That leads me to believe the is zero CCTV evidence etc of her leaving on bus/taxi/car etc. Personally I think the guards suspect the worst but have very little evidence.

Or they do have evidence but need a body to go further