SEARCHES ARE to continue today for Karen Coyles, the Ballycastle, Co Antrim, woman who has been missing since Sunday.
The silver VW Golf car belonging to Ms Coyles was found outside the McQuillan GAA club in the town on Monday.
Ms Coyles (47), who is single and works at the research institute at University of Ulster’s Coleraine campus, leads the McQuillan camogie team and is the goalkeeper.
She has been missing since Sunday night after returning from Dublin, where at the weekend she captained the winning camogie team in the All-Ireland camogie 7s tournament.
The alarm was raised on Monday when Ms Coyles did not turn up for work in the biomedical sciences research institute at the Co Derry university. Friends said it was “totally out of character” for her to go missing in such fashion. This was particularly so in light of her happiness at having won the camogie tournament.
The search by the PSNI, rescue services and scores of local volunteers yesterday concentrated on coastal areas near Ballycastle in north Antrim. A representative of the club said: “We don’t know where she could be, we are searching everywhere.”
Séamus Blaney, Independent councillor in Ballycastle, said those involved were searching inland and at sea.
“She is full of beans, she lives for the camogie, she is always lifting funds for it,” Mr Blaney said. “It is a mystery, the whole thing. It is not like her to disappear like that.” – (Additional reporting PA)
