A woman’s body washed up on a beach in Scotland may have entered the Irish Sea in Dublin, cold case investigators believe.
In an attempt to solve a 16-year mystery as to the identity of the woman - thought to have been aged between 30 and 50 - a publicity campaign is being carried out over the coming weeks.
Known only as “Port Logan Woman”, her human remains came ashore on a beach of the same name near Stranraer on the west coast of Scotland on November 22nd, 2006.
Bids to identify her through checks on UK missing person lists have so far proved fruitless. However, fresh analysis of tidal flows and weather conditions at the time, carried out by the cold case unit at Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU), suggest the woman went into the water in Dublin Bay.
It is believed she may have gone missing in the spring or summer of 2006 and was in the sea for up to six months before her body was washed ashore.
An image of what she may have looked like has been developed using technology although the team stressed it is not necessarily an exact depiction of the woman’s face.
Dr Maureen Taylor, co-director of the Cold Case Unit at GCU, said its team have also been carrying out inquiries into the clothing she was wearing at the time.
“Although she was found in south-west Scotland, it may be that she had lived in, spent time in, or had travelled to or from Ireland,” she said .
“We believe there is an Irish connection because as part of our investigation we have sought the advice of people with expertise around drift trajectories, tidal flows and the weather and the work that they’ve done points to this woman potentially entering the water around Dublin, probably around six months before she was found in November. So spring or summer time.
“We’re hoping that people who may recognise this woman or feel that there is some similarity to anyone that they’ve lost contact with or they know to have gone missing around that time or maybe even some time before that.
“We’re appealing to people to think about their families, their family tree, their colleagues, friends or associates or anyone that they’ve lost contact with since 2006, to get in touch with us.”
According to their research, the woman was wearing size 10 black Bay Trading trousers, a white or light coloured size 34C bra from BHS and brown or tan-coloured tights.
The woman had no teeth but may have worn dentures, the cold case team said.
She is described as having been of thin build and between 4ft 11in (1.5m) and 5ft 4in tall.
Dr Taylor said a DNA profile is on record for the woman “so any other missing women who have a DNA profile on that database - it’s been searched and so far there are no results - that goes for Ireland and the rest of the UK.”
“We’ve also been doing a lot of inquiries about other missing women whose DNA may not be on a database. We’ve looked in Ireland, as well as in the UK as far as records are available - using open sources, public records of missing women.
“We feel we’ve exhausted that so far, so we’re looking for people - again - it may not be someone who’s actually been reported missing, it could just be someone that has lost contact with a family or with friends,” she told RTÉ radio.
GCU has set up a website to help in their appeal for new information. Posters, social media and video will be used in the weeks ahead as part of the campaign.
More than 400 contacts across Ireland are also being encouraged to share details of the case.
The website is https://locate.international/port-logan-woman-appeal/ while anyone with information can contact the team by email at ColdCaseUnit@gcu.ac.uk or by telephone on +44 141 331 3235.
There is also an online form for information on the website.