Missing Priscilla Berry's family offer DNA help to identify remains

Priscilla Berry was reported missing from her Mochdre home on 14 June 1978

DNA samples are to be taken from the family of a woman who went missing 36 years ago to see if they match remains found in the sea in 1980.

Priscilla Berry, 39, vanished from her home in Mochdre, Conwy county, in 1978 but North Wales Police believe her body was later discovered off the coast.

They traced family members after a public appeal last week and now hope new DNA techniques can close the case.

The woman's body was interred in a local cemetery but was not identified.

Det Con Don Kenyon, who is leading the investigation, said: "We will now work with the family in the hope of bringing them some closure.

"The news of renewed police involvement in the case has clearly caused them some distress and reawakened memories of the time when Mrs Berry went missing."

Police are trying to identify several human remains discovered in the region over the last five decades, including those of a man aged in his 30s whose body was recovered from the sea off Anglesey in 1983.

Criminality is not suspected in any of the cases and Operation Orchid was launched to "identify, reunite and allow the dignity of a funeral service for family and friends to pay their respects".

New police inquiries with the National Missing Persons Bureau identified Mrs Berry as a possible match with the remains found in the sea off Llandudno on 2 January 1980.