New police searches for missing teenager
????? ?????, pictured at her parents grave in Castlederg, cleaning the plaque placed in memory of her sister, Arlene, who disappeared 15 years ago this week. 1408JM01
THE family of a missing Co Tyrone teenager say they are afraid to build up their hopes that a new police search will find her body.
The PSNI said it will launch fresh searches for the body of Castlederg schoolgirl, Arlene Arkinson, who disappeared in 1994.
Arlene was 15 years old when she disappeared after a night out in Bundoran, Co Donegal.
It is widely believed she was abducted and murdered. This Saturday, August 13, will mark the 17th anniversary of her disappearance.
“Investigations into Arlene’s murder are continuing. We intend to mount further searches in the coming months,” a police spokesman said.
“Arlene’s family have been kept up to date with the plans for a new search,” he added.
Speaking to the News Letter yesterday, Arlene’s sister, Kathleen – who will meet with police this morning to find out more details about the planned search operations – expressed her fear, that any fresh hope could again be dashed.
“We have to be hopeful, that maybe this time they will find Arlene after all these years,” she said.
“But we cannot get our hopes up too much, we have had so much disappointment over the years, the comedown is very hard on all of us.
“I am glad that things are moving again. Saturday will be the anniversary of when she went missing, and I would ask that people take a moment and say a prayer for Arlene and that she may be found and laid to rest.
“We think about her every day since she went missing and we just want her found.”
Kathleen also voiced her frustration that a new search had not taken place sooner.
“We were told by police in November last year that there would be new searches carried out, but we do not why it has taken until now for those searches to begin,” she added.
“It has been very difficult and frustrating – we only have heard from the police over the last few weeks, but before that we had heard nothing for a long time.
“You start to think that Arlene has been forgotten about and that she will never be found.
“We are glad that a new search will begin, but I will have to wait to speak to police to find out if there has been any new information which might lead somewhere.”
Kathleen said the family were grateful for the specialist search team which came over from England with a sniffer dog called Eddie to help in a previous search.
Eddie, a specially-trained English springer spaniel, not only found the body of Strabane woman, Attracta Harron, but helped police put her killer in jail, and also helped in the hunt for missing Madeleine McCann in Portugal.
Convicted child-killer and rapist, Robert Howard, 77, was charged with the murder of Arlene but was acquitted in 2005.
In 2008, Arlene’s father, William, died at the age of 66 from a suspected heart attack in his Castlederg home following 14 years of anguish and tireless searching for his daughter’s remains.
The family said their father had died from a “broken heart”.
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