Man quizzed over murder of missing vet, 37
POLIcE have launched a murder probe over a vet who disappeared from her home.
catherine Gowing, 37, was last seen alive on Friday evening, leaving the practice where she worked in Mold, North Wales.
Police were alerted when she failed to turn up for work on Monday morning, having also missed an appointment over the weekend.
They found a 4x4 Miss Gowing used for work on the drive with the keys inside, while her house was open. However, her burgundy Renault clio was missing.
The following day they arrested a 46-year-old local man on suspicion of her murder.
Last night Miss Gowing’s elder sister, Emma, said her family were devastated, adding: ‘She is the light of our family and we can’t imagine that light gone.’
Miss Gowing, originally from Birr, county Offaly, in the Republic of Ireland, lived in a modern semidetached house in New Brighton, near Mold. The £150,000 property, in a quiet cul-de-sac, is owned by the DE Evans Veterinary Surgery, where she worked. Her flatmate and fellow Irish vet, Jane Doyle, 37, is believed to have been in Ireland for the weekend. Yesterday the house was sealed off as a forensics team scoured it for clues.
Detective Superintendent John Hanson, of North Wales police, said he feared Miss Gowing may have come to ‘some significant harm’.
Miss Gowing’s parents, John and Maureen, who are in their 80s, were last night being comforted at the family farm in Birr. Her uncle, Edward Gowing, also a vet, said the family had been told there was little chance of her being found alive.
He said the family were told that the man in custody may have had access to the house but was not in a relationship with the single vet.
He said his niece had planned to return to Ireland at christmas to take over the family farm.
Neighbours described Miss Gowing as a ‘lovely girl’ who had lived in the area since qualifying as a vet in Hungary two years ago.