Lisa’s body ‘may have been dumped at sea’

POLICE investigating the murder of missing Co Down woman Lisa Dorrian yesterday said they believed her body may have been dumped at sea up to six months after she disappeared.

Lisa, 25, has not been seen since February 28 last year when she left a party on a seaside caravan park a few miles down the coast from her Bangor home.

Detective Superintendent George Hamilton, who had been leading efforts to find her body and track the killers, said the PSNI now believed her body may have been secreted on land for several months before being taken out to sea some time between late June and early August last year.

Speaking at a news conference in Bangor he appealed for help from the public, in finding both her first and final resting place.

The missing woman’s sister Joanne made a tearful plea for information.

Launching the appeal for information, Mr Hamilton said: “No mother, father, brother, sister or partner should have to go through the nightmare the Dorrian family have experienced in the last 12 months.

“We now believe that Lisa’s body was moved from an original location. We believe this original location was on land, possibly in a building, an outhouse, a derelict or a shed. We don’t believe Lisa was originally placed in water. But we now believe Lisa’s body may have been moved from an original location on a date between June 27 and August 4, 2005,” he said.

New murder appeal posters issued by the PSNI contain pictures of Lisa and a boat which they believe may have been used to transport her body.

Mr Hamilton appealed to anyone who had seen suspicious activity on land or sea to contact them on 0044 28 9056 1880.

He said his officers were anxious to find the original hiding place of the body, to gather forensic evidence.

Joanne Dorrian said: “We expect to see her coming through the door. We pick up the phone to ring her and realise we can’t. We see her friends getting on with their lives and going out on Friday nights. We can’t ever have her back, we can’t grieve because we never had the chance to say goodbye.”

Several men have been questioned about Lisa’s disappearance, but all have been released without charge.

The Dorrian family have erected billboards appealing for help, set up a confidential website and last year offered a £10,000 (€14,635) reward in what has so far been a vain effort to get information.