Police have pledged to do everything they can to find a murdered schoolgirl as fresh searches for her remains began 17 years after her disappearance.
Arlene Arkinson, 15, from Castlederg, Co Tyrone, went missing after a night out in Bundoran. Police believe she was abducted and killed.
The teenager was last seen in a car driven by convicted child killer Robert Howard. In 2005, he stood trial for her murder despite the fact her body had not been found.
He was acquitted by a jury which was not aware he was serving a life sentence for the 2001 murder of schoolgirl Hannah Williams, 14, from south London.
Forty sites in and around the Castlederg area are to be searched by the PSNI in an operation set to take months.
The officer leading the new searches, PSNI Detective Superintendent Raymond Murray, said the aim was two-fold – to find Arlene’s body and progress the investigation.
“On a personal level, Arlene’s family has been in torment for 17 years,” he said. “We want to do everything we possibly can to reunite Arlene with her family. Arlene’s sisters and brothers have suffered for too long. Despite the considerable time gap and the challenges involved in locating remains, we will do everything we possibly can to achieve this.
“On a policing level, the recovery of remains may represent a significant opportunity to progress the investigation, as knowledge of any remains or the location of a body deposition site may provide evidence to further our inquiries.”
The first search got under way on what would have been the 70th birthday of the teenager’s late father Willie.
Arlene’s sister Kathleen Arkinson said she was scared to be too optimistic. “This is the biggest search so far and our hopes are built up,” she said. “I just hopes she’s found, I don’t know what way we’ll react if she’s not.”
The search will take place on land at Scraghy Road between Castlederg and Ederney, Co Fermanagh, close to where Arlene was last seen in the early hours of August 14, 1994.
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