Tina Satchwell was reported missing by her husband in 2017 and a documentary aired this week called The Trial of Richard Satchwell which examined the disturbing case
A woman reported missing by her husband was not found for six years – until police made a chilling discovery “inside the walls” of their home.
Tina Satchwell was reported missing by her husband in 2017, with the couple residing in Cork, Ireland. The unsettling case has once again shocked the nation following a new documentary titled The Trial of Richard Satchwell, which aired on Virgin Media One on Monday night (September 29).
It offered a harrowing account of what transpired and below we revisit this haunting tragedy.
Tina’s spouse, Richard Satchwell, was a lorry driver originally from Leicester. He feigned confusion about her location when he reported her missing to the authorities.
He shared a home with Tina in Youghal, Cork, and he falsely informed Gardai that €26,000 (approx £22,700) in cash savings had also vanished from the loft.
Tina was last spotted in public at a car boot sale on March 19, 2017, but it wasn’t until March 24 when Satchwell approached the police. He claimed he didn’t report her missing initially because they had a row before she allegedly left.
He would later appear on television expressing his affection for Tina and pleading for her to come back – even promising that all would be forgiven. However, in the documentary, Tina’s childhood friend and niece, Sarah Howard, was suspicious from the start, for a specific reason.
She revealed: “I found out from my mother that Tina was gone. She mentioned Richard had called her and said Tina was gone. Straight away I went out and got my phone and I rang Tina first – obviously no answer. I rang Richard’s phone and he answered.
“When I asked if she brought the dogs or were they at home, he said ‘no, the dogs are here’. Straight away I was like ‘she would never go without them’. It would be like me walking out on my children. They were her babies. So I was kind of alarmed at that.”
Friends painted a disturbing portrait, alleging Satchwell was a domineering spouse, and that since Tina relocated to the Youghal residence, she had become cut off from others.
Lorraine Howard, her half-sister, told the documentary: “I think she felt she could never, never be free from him.”
In May of that year, two months after Tina, 46, was reported missing, police began to suspect that a crime may have taken place.
A warrant was secured to examine the property and electronic devices were confiscated.
Tragically, the horrific reality was agonisingly near to the officers, but it would remain hidden until October 2023 when police returned to the couple’s residence.
Until this moment, Satchwell, despite questioning from authorities, insisted on his innocence, and even declared: “One way or another this will all come out in time and it will prove I did nothing wrong.”
However, when police returned in October 2023, they “went into the walls” of the home. This was after a forensic officer noticed that the poured concrete on the ground under the stairs looked different and newer compared to other cement nearby.
With the help of a cadaver dog and builders using heavy-duty hammers to break the concrete, Tina’s skeletal remains were discovered buried in plastic hidden in a hole found under the stairwell. Alongside her remains, Tina’s dressing gown with a belt, pyjama top and bottoms, underwear and purse were also recovered.
A devastated Lorraine revealed to Virgin Media producers: “When I heard all the gory details of what went on and what he did to her I was having nightmares for weeks after that. Everything I thought I knew about him I didn’t.”
She further added: “Was he thinking about killing Tina for weeks, for months? Nothing would surprise me anymore.”
Satchwell was re-arrested and this time he claimed he acted in self-defence, stating that Tina charged at him with a chisel. He alleged that she lost her life while he was trying to fend her off.
He confessed to moving the body into a disused freezer before burying her under the stairs and cementing it over.
In a chilling turn of events, after moving Tina’s body, he would ask Sarah if she wanted the freezer that he initially used to store her friend’s body.
Reflecting on this, she said: “That was one of the hardest things of all.”
Satchwell faced trial, a process he was no stranger to, given his 14 previous convictions, including larceny from a shop, cheque book fraud, theft and public order offences.
The trial at the Central Criminal Court spanned five weeks, with the jury deliberating for nine hours and 28 minutes before unanimously concluding that Satchwell intended to kill Tina, thus finding him guilty of murder.
Despite this, Lorraine expressed that the family harbours no “ill feelings” towards the police, even though she stated: “I do look back and think that Tina could have been found in months rather than years.”
Even though Satchwell received a life sentence, the exact circumstances of Tina’s final moments will likely remain a mystery.
However, her half-sister Lorraine shared on the programme: “At the same time I’m kind of relieved I don’t know how she died. I don’t actually want to know. I think that it’s no harm that I don’t actually know how she died because there is no good in knowing.”
Sarah added: “We can’t go by what he said, so we will never know the truth. But to be honest I don’t want to know what happened because we have heard enough through the trial. We, her family, heard things we should never have had to hear or go through.”
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