Police search house for missing woman's body
An all-night party house has been searched by police hunting for the body of a woman who vanished from a seaside caravan park, it emerged tonight.
As murder squad detectives questioned two men about the disappearance of Lisa Dorrian, 25, forensic experts examined items from the mid-terrace property on the Ards Peninsula in Northern Ireland.
A former prisoner is understood to have lived at the address in Ballyhalbert, Co Down until he broke up with his girlfriend last month.
Officers spent up to 36 hours trawling though the house in an attempt to find clues that could help end the agony for the missing shop assistant’s family.
A caravan was also removed from a site in the village which looks out over the Irish Sea. The village has a population of less than 1,000 people.
Ms Dorrian, who lived 10 miles away in Bangor, was last seen leaving a party at the park where she had been spending more and more time early on February 28.
Although the pretty blonde, who dreamt of opening a jet-ski company in Spain, made no contact with relatives, her distraught parents and two sisters clung on to a dwindling belief she would be found alive.
Air and land searches were carried out along the coast, with police divers also brought in to strengthen the effort.
It was thought Ms Dorrian may have travelled to Lancashire in an attempt to trace her biological father who left when she was a baby.
But the family’s hopes were shattered when police revealed their search had been turned into a murder probe.
Two men were arrested and can be held for up to 48 hours.
The confirmation came from Detective Superintendent Pat Steele following a number of inquiries by his team.
Officers in green boiler suits, heavy duty boots and masks carried out a meticulous examination of the house at the centre of the investigation before he made the announcement.
“It’s the sort of place you wouldn’t want to be at the weekend,” a neighbour said.
“People were coming and going night and day, and there’s plenty of talk about drugs.”
The man who rented the house moved in before he was sentenced to a short jail term, locals claimed.
He returned after his release, only to move out weeks ago.
“He had a girlfriend but she seems to have left the area,” one resident said.
The Ulster Unionist MP for North Down, Lady Sylvia Hermon, has contacted the Dorrians to offer her support.
She said: “The nightmare has come true for them.
“Every day that has gone past they have lived in hope that Lisa would return in safety.
“Now there is this devastating news. My heart goes out to them.”
