Police dig for girl missing 12 years

Police investigating the disappearance of a teenage girl in Northern Ireland 12 years ago were tonight digging in waste ground in the centre of Portadown, Co Armagh.

Caroline Graham, 19, from the border town of Newry, Co Down, went missing in Portadown at Easter 1989.

Despite extensive inquiries nothing has been seen or heard of her since then.

But earlier today, as part of a renewed hunt for her, experts in ground disturbance began examining a plot of ground behind property in Carlton Street in the centre of Portadown. Later they brought in a digger.

The dig was not far from where the teenager used had lived with her boyfriend.

The girl’s mother, Barbara, tonight appealed for information about her missing daughter.

She said: ‘‘I’d like to think now that somebody out there would finally come forward, somebody out there with a bad conscience who knows something, let them come forward.

‘‘It’s all out in the open now, nobody can hide now.’’