04/04/2019

Lisa Dorrian Search Progresses To New Site

The ongoing search for Lisa Dorrian has intensified, with officers searching a second site in Ballyhalbert.

Detectives have been scouring the County Down caravan park where the 25-year-old was last seen alive in February 2005, as well as a disused airfield behind it and now another piece of land nearby.

Police believe Lisa was murdered after attending a party in the caravan park. Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy said the answers to her disappearance remain local to Ballyhalbert.

Over 400 searches have been conducted across Northern Ireland since the 25-year-old's disappearance, but new information caused police to refocus their efforts to the quiet Ards Peninsula village.

Det Supt Murphy said the benefit of new technology is also being used in the investigation: "These searches are not a simply a case of going over old ground- I have not brought a specialist search team here to do that. These searches are deliberately intended to consider areas that have not been previously searched.

"I have publicly stated that the answers to Lisa's disappearance are held by a very small number of people. Those individuals may feel that they are in an impossible position, because to tell the police what happened on that night, might also incriminate themselves in having withheld that information until now."

He continued: "Fourteen years have now passed, but our resolve has not diminished. It is important that we bring the Dorrian family the answers that any grieving family deserves."

Anyone with information should call detectives on 101, or can pass details anonymously to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.



(JG/CM)

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A large-scale police search for the body of murdered Bangor woman Lisa Dorrian got underway at a County Down caravan park yesterday, Monday 01 April. The 25-year-old was last seen alive while attending a party at Ballyhalbert Caravan Park in 2005. Detectives are now carrying out fresh searches of the area and a disused airfield behind it.