THE IDENTITY of a body washed up on the Welsh coast 24 years ago has finally been confirmed as the body of a missing woman from Wexford.
Following two decades of uncertainty, the family of Pauline Finlay have finally received the closure they have been waiting for.
49-year-old Mrs Finlay went disappeared while walking her two dogs on Old Bawn beach in County Wexford in early 1994. The only trace of her was her two wellingtons washed up on the strand.
Mrs Finlay and her husband Joe had a mobile home at Old Bawn caravan park.
They had planned on going to a play that evening, and her husband raised the alarm when she did not return.
A body washed up at Cable near Holyhead on the north Wales coast seven months later, and was reported to be that of Mrs Finlay’s at the time, but was never confirmed.
An inquest at Dublin Coroner’s Court yesterday confirmed the identification of the body as that of the Wexford woman.
Coroner Dr Myra Cullinane said she hoped the development would bring a measure of finality to the family’s many years of ‘unanswered questions’.
“Science has progressed to the point where many families who were left bereaved and not knowing are now being assisted in being reunited with loved ones,” she told the court.
During the inquest, statements from friends who helped in the search were read into the record.
A statement from neighbour Gerard Byrne described the poignant scene on the afternoon of her disappearance.
“We looked down from the dunes and we could see the two dogs at the water’s edge,” he said.
“They were barking and were very excited. And there were two wellingtons 10 feet apart.”
A member of the Garda who later attended the scene recounted how the dogs would not leave the water’s edge.
The coroner was told how a woman tending to seagulls covered in oil discovered partial human remains in the seaweed at Cable Bay on October 31, 1994.
Despite police inquiries at the time, the remains were not identified and were buried at Ynys Wen Cemetery, at Valley near Holyhead on January 24, 1995.
Two decades later a renewed bid by North Wales Police to solve a series of missing person cases finally brought the closure Mrs Finlay's family craved.
Dr Cullinane said there was a strong possibility that Mrs Finlay had slipped and drowned but, as there were no witnesses to the incident, she could not specify the cause of death.
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