'You don’t just vanish off the face of the earth': Family of Tina Satchwell mark fifth anniversary  

Gardaí searching at Mitchel's Wood, Castlemartyr, Co Cork for evidence relating to the disappearance of Tina Satchwell in 2018. Picture: Michael Mac Sweeney/Provision

The sister of missing Cork woman Tina Satchwell has said “hope is fading” of finding her alive ahead of the fifth anniversary of her disappearance.

Mrs Satchwell vanished from the home she shared with her husband, Richard Satchwell, on Grattan St in Youghal, Co Cork, on March 20, 2017.

Despite a large-scale garda investigation, including studying hours of CCTV footage and searches off the coast and in woodland in east Cork, no trace has been found of the missing Cork woman.

“Someone has had a hand in her disappearance,” her sister, Teresa Dingivan, said.

If she was out there, she’d have gotten in touch with her family. She wouldn’t leave us worry like this.

“We’re desperate for news. This has been going on for a long time. What happened? Where is she? Someone must have seen her.

“Time goes by too quickly for most people but for me and my family, time stood still because a part of us is missing.

“And there’s nothing you can do. You just live in hope that someone will come and give you the answers that you need so that you can move on.

“We live in hope but hope is fading. It’s getting harder each year, harder and harder."

“There’s been nothing. It’s gone stone cold. It’s turning into a cold case.” 

But one thing Ms Dingivan is sure of is that her sister never left Ireland.

“She was on no buses, no ferries. She didn’t have a passport and she left all her ID — her birth cert, everything, in her house. If you were going to leave somewhere, ID is the first thing you’d take.” 

Aged 45 when she disappeared, Mrs Satchwell, who is originally from Fermoy in Co Cork, has been described as sociable, bubbly, and kind. Her disappearance has completely shocked her family and those who knew her.

“We’re missing her,” Ms Dingivan said.

“You don’t just disappear, vanish off the face of the earth, and not get in contact with your family.” 

Ms Dingivan said Mrs Satchwell was close to her family, kind, loving, and responsible. She would never allow her family to suffer without knowing where she was, she said.

“If she was out there she would have gotten in contact with the family by now. You wouldn’t put your family through the heartache and the pain of not knowing where you are.

“We’re desperate for news. We just want news, we want to know what happened.

“Someone must know something."

We are pleading for any information, where she is, where’s she gone, what happened to her? How come someone can disappear off the face of the earth?

“There are loads of families out there with loved ones missing. I know how they’re feeling. You live in hope.” 

Gardaí also searched CCTV footage from all Irish ports and airports, including those in the North in collaboration with the Police Service of Northern Ireland, but found no signs of Mrs Satchwell leaving the island.

British police also found no sign of the missing woman at their ports and airports or in places in the UK where she once lived.

She was last seen in public at a car boot sale in Carrigtwohill, Co Cork, with her husband, the day before she vanished.

And she was reportedly last seen by her husband, Richard Satchwell, at 10am on March 20, 2017, when she asked him to go food shopping in the nearby town of Dungarvan, Co Waterford.

She was not at their home when he returned a few hours later and he presumed she had gone to stay with her family in Fermoy, he said.

Four days later, he reported her missing.