THE POLICE Service of Northern Ireland is to launch a detailed search for the body of teenager Arlene Arkinson, from Castlederg, Co Tyrone, who went missing in 1994 and is believed to have been abducted and murdered.
PSNI detectives yesterday briefed members of the Arkinson family about the plan to carry out further searches for Arlene who was 15 when she went missing 17 years ago.
She was last seen in the company of child killer Robert Howard during a night out across the Border in Bundoran, Co Donegal. In 2005 Howard stood trial for the murder even though the teenager’s body was not located.
A jury acquitted him of the murder. Howard, now aged 67, was already serving a life sentence for the 2001 murder of Hannah Williams (14) from Deptford in south London.
Three years ago Police Ombudsman Al Hutchinson was critical of the police handling of Arlene’s disappearance. He found that evidence in the search for her killer was unavailable because police delayed arresting Howard, the chief suspect and a known serial sex offender.
He said that investigating detectives “did not respond with vigour to reports that a vulnerable person was missing, having last been seen in the company of a man who was a known sex offender”.
The Arkinson family was also critical of the investigation. The family expressed guarded hope that Arlene’s body would be recovered, with her sister Kathleen repeating that they were “120 per cent” certain that Howard murdered the teenager and that he knew where the body was located.
Police confirmed yesterday that detailed searches for her body, that could involve digs at up to 40 sites, are to begin at the end of this month. Officers will be assisted by specialist forensic officers and sniffer dogs.
Similar to searches for members of the so-called “disappeared”, geologists, archaeologists and psychological profilers also will be involved.
A PSNI spokesman said that Arlene’s disappearance remained a live investigation.
Kathleen Arkinson, who was briefed at Castlederg PSNI station yesterday morning with other members of the family, expressed cautious hope that her sister’s body would be found so that she could be buried alongside her father, mother and her sister Mary.
“I am sort of scared to be too hopeful that Arlene could be found, but it’s hard not to get your hopes up,” she said.
Locating her sister’s body would bring a measure of closure to the family, she added.
