Family appeal as Saoirse Smyth searches continue

The grandmother of a young woman feared murdered and secretly buried in Omeath has made an impassioned appeal to her killers to give up her body.

The PSNI and Gardai are continuing to search part of a forest on the border for missing Saoirse Smyth.

The 28-year-old from west Belfast was last seen in April 2017.

Vera Smyth brought Saoirse up from the age of four following the death of her own mother.

She said: “It’s unreal just thinking about it, I mean whoever killed her, have they no conscience?

“Do they not think what they’re putting their people through? And we have to go through this day in and day out wondering where she is, not knowing where she is.”

Police say Saoirse, who battled drug addiction most of her life, was vulnerable and likely to have been exploited by others in the criminal underworld.

They believe she was murdered and we have been working to get answers for her family.

Vera Smyth continued: “Was she shot, was she stabbed, was she strangled? You don’t know what.

“And if her body’s going to be found, what way is it going to be? You just don’t know. Put a closure to this, please put a closure to it.”