Tina's body found face down with legs ‘folded' in grave under stairs, court told

Sunday World

13-05-2025

The English truck driver appeared for the tenth day of his murder trial
THE body of missing woman Tina Satchwell was discovered lying face down in a clandestine grave underneath the stairwell of the Cork home she shared with her husband.
Forensic anthropologist Dr Laureen Buckley told the Central Criminal Court trial murder trial of Ms Satchwell's husband, Richard (58), that the position the body was found in helped prevent full decomposition to the front part of her body.
"The body was face down and the legs were folded over to the side," she said.
Dr Buckley had assisted forensic archaeologists Dr Niamh McCullagh and Dr Aidan Harte with the excavation of the remains after they were found by gardaí on October 12, 2023.
Together, all three carefully placed the body - still wrapped in a blanket and black plastic - in a black body bag for transfer to the morgue at Cork University Hospital (CUH).
Richard Satchwell. Photo: Michael Mac Sweeney/Provision
The English truck driver appeared for the tenth day of his murder trial before the Central Criminal Court in Dublin wearing navy slacks, a white T-shirt and a cream check shirt.
The trial - before Mr Justice Paul McDermott and a jury of seven women and five men - is expected to run until early June.
Mr Satchwell has pleaded not guilty to the murder of his wife at a time unknown on March 19/20, 2017 at his home at No 3 Grattan Street in Youghal, Co Cork contrary to Common Law.
Her partially skeletonised body was discovered following an invasive four day Garda search of the Satchwell family home from October 10-13, 2023.
The State said her body was temporarily stored in a chest freezer before being buried in a shallow grave underneath the stairs and topped with a concrete slab.
Mr Satchwell had notified officers at Fermoy Garda Station on March 24, 2017 that his Fermoy-born wife was missing from their Youghal home when he returned from an errand in Waterford four days earlier.
The Leicester native claimed his wife had left her beloved dogs, Heidi and Ruby, behind but had taken two suitcases and €26,000 in their life savings which had been stored in a tin in the attic.
At the urging of gardaí, he made a formal missing person statement on May 11, 2017.
Richard Satchwell holding a photo of Tina and standing in one of her walk-in wardrobes. Photo: Kyran O'Brien .
Mr Satchwell's home was subjected to a 12 hour search by a team of ten gardaí on June 7, 2017 but nothing was found.
That search included conducting a 'Blue Star' test for traces of blood but none were detected.
However, a new brick wall underneath the house stairwell was noted and photographed.
Ms Satchwell was the focus of a six and a half year missing person investigation.
Her body was found buried underneath the stairwell during a second more invasive Garda search of the Grattan Street property from October 10, 2023.
A cadaver dog called 'Fern', used by the UK Home Office, was deployed from Northern Ireland at the request of the Gardaí.
Gardaí had targeted an area underneath the stairs for excavation after realising that there were two different colours of cement located there - one newer poured cement and the other much older.
Fern had also shown great interest in the area by the stairs.
Dr Buckley said she was asked to attend No 3 Grattan Street in Youghal on October 12 by Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster.
When she arrived, Dr McCullagh and Dr Harte were still attempting to excavate the body from the grave.
She assisted, with the team taking turns to expose and excavate the remains.
Dr Buckley said the body was lying face down in the grave - and was carefully removed and placed inside a black plastic body bag.
The body was left within the wrappings in which it was found.
"The body was turned and it was seen that the right arm was tightly flexed over the thorax. The left arm was loose and flexed. The forearm was over the lower thorax.
"Because the body was lying face down it was more preserved in the front.
"The back of the body was more skeletonised.
"The lower legs, which were bent, were skeletonised. The head was also skeletonised. The muscles and ligaments that attach bones together had decomposed so the vertebrae had become loose. The cranium was detached (from the spinal column.)"
The legs had been partly bent towards the thigh.
"Both tibia and fibula (leg bones) were visible."
"There was enough soft tissue present to identify the body as female."
Most of the remaining soft tissue was by the lower abdomen and pelvic area.
Dr Buckley said she roughly estimated that the body was found at a depth of 80cm in the grave.
"There were no fractures upon any of the bones.
"The remains were those of a 45 year old female and there were no fractures to any of the bones including the hyoid bone."
Richard Satchwell and his wife Tina Satchwell
News in 90 Seconds - May 13th
Ms Satchwell was later identified from dental records though hair and a toe bone particle were taken for DNA analysis.
She was found fully clothed in Tartan-style pyjamas and lilac robe with her purse in the pocket, wrapped in a blanket and black plastic sheeting, with small shards of glass in her head and arm.
The "clandestine grave" was up to 84cm (two and a half feet) deep - and was much larger than the "body bundle" buried there.
Detectives and forensic archaeologists realised they had discovered human remains when, as they excavated the area a human hand became visible within the heavy plastic sheeting.
Builder Pat O'Connor, who supervised the construction team contracted to help Gardaí for the October 2023 search, said an area under the stairwell was inspected on October 11 at the direction of forensic officers.
He said a piece of old linoleum was pulled back.
"You could clearly see a kind of...new concrete had been poured in a rectangular shape. It was roughly six foot by three feet wide - you could see the shape of the new concrete."
Mr O'Connor said the building team withdrew from the property when part of the concrete was excavated and grey-black plastic was found underneath the concrete.
The following day the building team were asked to demolish and remove the small red brick wall under the stairs.
The trial already heard that Mr Satchwell claimed to Gardaí in October 2023, just hours after human remains were found in his home, that his wife attacked him with a chisel on March 20 2017 before she "went limp" after he tried to protect himself by holding her away from him with a belt, with her weight on the belt by her neck.
He placed her body in a chest freezer and then buried it in a one metre grave he excavated under the stairwell of their Cork home.
Mr Satchwell, having placed his wife's body in black sheeting and then into the shallow grave, covered it over with cement before notifying Gardaí four days later she was missing.
Her remains were only found six and a half years later.
The prosecution is led by Gerardine Small SC with Imelda Kelly BL.
Mr Satchwell's defence team is led by Brendan Grehan SC with Paula McCarthy BL, instructed by Cork solicitor Eddie Burke.