‘We’ll keep fighting’: search persists for priest thought to be murdered on Pinochet torture ship

A man leaves a flower at Cemetery No 3 of Playa Ancha, where excavations were carried out to search for British priest Michael Woodward and other disappeared detainees of the Pinochet dictatorship, in Valparaiso, Chile. Photograph: Adriana Thomasa/The Guardian

In the weak winter sunshine forensic investigators in white suits cast long shadows as they stepped between gravestones at Playa Ancha cemetery in the Chilean coastal city of Valparaíso.

But as the rhythmic click of spades and the throb of an excavator faded, a third search for the remains of Michael Woodward reached a frustrating conclusion.