The husband of missing woman Tina Satchwell has pleaded for her to get in touch so that they can “talk things through”.
This weekend marks the fifth anniversary of Tina’s baffling disappearance from the home she shared with her husband Richard in Youghal, Co Cork on March 20, 2017.
Despite hundreds of lines of inquiries, gardai have been unable to find any trace of Tina, and her sudden vanishing remains a mystery, now five years on.
And in an exclusive statement to our sister paper The Star, Tina’s heartbroken husband Richard pleaded for anyone with information to finally come forward.
“All I would say at this time is for anyone with any news to contact someone, anyone,” he said.
He then addressed Tina directly, calling on her to come forward and explain why she disappeared — even just to sit down with him and explain.
“And to Tina herself: get in touch, because at this point in time I only have one big question, which is why?”
Richard, who still lives at the home he shared with Tina in Youghal, rarely speaks these days, after an exhaustive series of television interviews in the first number of years since her disappearance.
In those interviews Richard repeatedly denied that he would do anything to his wife — and stated he believed she may well be alive.
There have been few developments in the case, save for an extensive but unsuccessful garda search in the Castlemartyr woods back in 2018.
A body found last year also sparked the attention of investigating officers, with it being forensically examined for any possible match to Tina.
However that too proved to be a dead end, with the body belonging to an elderly woman.
At this stage gardai investigating the disappearance of Tina Satchwell have looked into almost 400 separate lines of enquiry — including liaising with international police forces and Interpol.
Over 100 hours of CCTV has been viewed and in excess of 170 statements have been taken.
Speaking in 2018, Richard described the last moments he spent with Tina, and how when he returned home, she had apparently vanished.
“She came downstairs. I gave her a cup of tea and a slice of toast.
“Then she asked if I’d go over to Dungarvan. I gave her a peck, and said I’d see her in a couple of hours.”
Richard said he returned to an empty house occupied only by his wife’s two dogs, Ruby and Heidi, which he said was strange as she normally took them everywhere with her.
He called the gardai four days later after receiving no information from his wife or her family.
Richard also previously told how gardai questioned him over the disappearance, and how he has “nothing to hide.”
“I have been asked questions but I haven’t been cautioned,” he said.
“It got back to me through a member of my family that they were asking, what I thought as unfair questions, about do they think that I could harm my wife. I came back to the gardai here in Youghal and I made a complaint.
“I wouldn’t lift a finger to my wife. But then as your brain starts clearing a small bit, you understand they’ve got this routine that they go through.
“They searched the house when I was up the country. I didn’t know that they were going to search it but now they have a key to enter whenever they like.”
Tina is described as 5’ 7’’, of medium build with blonde shoulder length hair and blue eyes.
Speaking to The Star in December, Tina’s heartbroken sister Teresa Dingivan said she believed someone had to have given her a “helping hand” in disappearing.
“She is not the type to have disappeared on her own. She must have had a helping hand.
“That’s the only way I can put it. So if you had a hand in her disappearance, please let us know where she is.
“Please put our minds at rest,” she said.
READ MORE: Sister of Tina Satchwell believes 'someone had a hand' in her disappearance
READ MORE: Husband of missing Tina Satchwell suspects she's alive and moved on with her life
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