Lisa Dorrian: Police search widens to WWII airfield

Lisa Dorrian, a 25-year-old shop assistant from Bangor, County Down, went missing in February 2005

Police are continuing to search for the body of County Down woman Lisa Dorrian who went missing in 2005, the detective leading the investigation has said.

Ms Dorrian was 25 when she disappeared after attending a party at a caravan park in the seaside village of Ballyhalbert, County Down.

Police are conducting searches in ponds at the Clay Pits in Ballyhalbert.

A former World War Two airfield near the caravan park where Lisa was last seen alive is also being searched.

Det Supt Jason Murphy said he believed only one or two people knew where Ms Dorrian's body was.

"These areas are also technically difficult, but the searches are likely to conclude in the coming days," he said.

"Lisa's family are being kept fully updated on their progress."

On Tuesday a new search for Ms Dorrian's remains began in County Down.

Det Supt Murphy said the Clay Pits were searched in the days after Ms Dorrian's disappearance "but at that stage the divers or the search team believed she may have fallen into the water, rather than the body having been disposed of".

He said the Dorrian family had been left in despair for 16 years.

"The true location of Lisa's body is known only by those who disposed of her body," Det Supt Murphy said.

"I believe that the number of people who know where Lisa is, is one or two... individuals.

"The challenge of trying to unlock that is very difficult."

'Lisa is everything to us'

Lisa's sister Joanne Dorrian thanked the police for their dedication and "for realising how important this is for us because we can't even get on with our lives... without Lisa".

She added: "You're just consumed by the fact the she's gone and we can't find her.

Police divers are involved in the latest search

"Lisa is everything to us and coming down to a site like this today, it just puts it all in perspective just how brutal what actually happened to Lisa could possibly be.

"You let your mind go there on occasion but you have to stop that because it would consume you.

"Our love for Lisa is the only thing that keeps us going - we're a stronger family now than we were 16 years ago.

"She doesn't deserve to be in a place unknown to us and those who loved her, she deserves to have a Christian burial."

The Dorrian family visited the search site on Tuesday

Ms Dorrian's disappearance is one of the most high-profile unsolved murders in Northern Ireland.

The last reported sighting of the 25-year-old was on the night of 27 February 2005.

When the shop assistant, from Bangor, County Down, first went missing, police said they could not rule out a crime.

• Lisa Dorrian appeal 15 years after disappearance

• Police divers involved in new Lisa Dorrian search

• Timeline: The disappearance of Lisa Dorrian

Police divers are involved in the latest search

Her handbag and belongings were discovered at the party in the caravan site.

The police response was upgraded from a missing person search to a murder inquiry on 13 March 2005, two weeks after she was last seen.

Over the past 16 years, police have followed thousands of lines of inquiry, taken hundreds of statements and carried out hundreds of unsuccessful searches.

They have also made several arrests but no-one has been charged with her murder.