Closure for family after body of walker identified
THE widower of a dog walker who went missing on an Irish beach 24 years ago died knowing her remains had finally been found, an inquest has heard.
Two decades of uncertainty for Pauline Finlay’s family were ended when she was identified as the woman whose body was washed up on the north Wales coast in 1994, Dublin Coroner’s Court was told.
The 49-year-old from Co Wexford had disappeared seven months previously while walking her two dogs on Old Bawn beach, Cahore, near Ballygarrett.
Her husband Joe feared she had slipped in the surf and been pulled out by the tides. The only trace of her was two Wellington boots washed up.
Her final resting place was revealed by chance 18 months ago when detectives in north Wales tested DNA from the remains found at Cable Bay near Holyhead with a sample from Mrs Finlay’s brother Joseph Hanlon.
Coroner Dr Myra Cullinane said she hoped it had brought a measure of finality to the family’s many years of “unanswered questions”.
Mr and Mrs Finlay had a mobile home at Old Bawn caravan park. She had gone to walk the dogs around 3.30pm on the day of her disappearance.
During the inquest, statements from friends who helped in the search were read. One, from neighbour Gerard Byrne, described the poignant scene on an empty beach as he and Mr Finlay arrived to look for her.
“We looked down from the dunes and we could see the two dogs at the water’s edge,” he said in his 1994 statement. “They were barking and were very excited. And there were two Wellingtons 10 feet apart.”
A garda who attended the scene recounted how the dogs would not leave the water.
The coroner was told how a woman tending to seagulls covered in oil discovered partial human remains on October 31, 1994. Despite police inquiries at the time, the remains were not identified and were buried at a cemetery near Holyhead.