Police step up search for missing Tyrone woman

The search for a Co Tyrone woman who has been missing for a month was intensified today.

Attracta Harron, a 65-year-old retired librarian, has not been seen since leaving Mass in Lifford, Co Donegal to walk back across the border to her home in Strabane on December 11.

The weekend-long cross border search was being centred around the Foyle River which divides the two towns and a 20 square kilometre area to the south of Strabane.

Police search teams and divers were joined by Strabane and Donegal Search and Rescue, Donegal Civil Defence and North West Mountain Rescue teams.

A police spokesman said the new search was not the result of any new information and that other lines of inquiry have not been ruled out.

He said there was still no firm information about the whereabouts of Mrs Harron, a mother of five.

Last month two women told police of a man with a southern Irish accent in a grey car who separately offered them lifts on the Strabane Road two weeks before Mrs Harron was last seen there.

Detective Inspector John Gilmore said it was an unusual development which may or may not be relevant to the investigation.

Over Christmas her family went to Dublin to hand out posters after unconfirmed reports that the missing woman had been seen in the city centre.

DI Gilmore said the weekend had been selected as a suitable time to draw all the resources together for a major search operation.

He added: “I would ask all people in the community to review in their minds where they were and what they were doing on Thursday 11th December just to be sure they have not overlooked something they saw or heard that would be relevant to this enquiry.”