More than five months after Catherine Maguire’s disappearance, her family feels as far away as ever. The 22-year-old had no known mental health problems and spoke of exciting plans for her future before disappearing in Anglesey. The most difficult thing for her relatives is not to understand.
Catherine disappeared on Monday, November 15 last year. Her father, Gerry, said she joined friends last Saturday for a movie night and socialized as usual. The Bangor University student was due to meet with one of these friends in the city on Monday to sign an apartment rental agreement, but she never showed up. Instead, she bought a return ticket that morning to Holyhead, the island town where her family lives, and was last reportedly seen walking to RSPB South Stack at 1:18 p.m.
“Sometimes people disappear after broken marriages or after caring for them,” Gerry said. “There was nothing like Catherine. As far as we know, there were no problems with Catherine. We can’t understand why she will disappear unexpectedly. “
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Until her student years, Catherine lived in Anglesey with Gary, mother Wendy, and younger brother Ciaran. Gerry, who runs a relocation business, described the family as “very close”. They love to travel together and in 2012 and 2015 they went on long camper vacations off the east coast of Australia.
Catherine, who preferred to have a few close friends rather than hundreds of online contacts, has never been on social media. Gerry, 51, described her as “a very personal person” who will hide when a camera comes out, but added: “Once you get to know her, she will open up.”
She loves helping others by working as a teenager at a food bank and at St. Mary’s Elementary School in Holyhead. “Obviously she was a little magnet for pupils,” Gerry said. “They didn’t want her to leave at the end of every day. She was buzzing home. Teachers said they had never seen children lead someone like her before. She has always had this empathy and a very caring conscience. Her moral compass was up to par. She hated to see anyone badly.
Catherine is described as a caring person who is very close to family and friends (Image: missingpeople.org.uk)
Catherine’s passion for helping young people led her to a health and social care course at Bangor University. She wanted a career in which to guide young people in vulnerable situations away from trouble, Gary said.
“She wanted to live student life, but she didn’t understand it because it was a slap in the middle of Covid,” Gary added. She was a little back and forth from Bangor to Holyhead because of the blockade, but she enjoyed university life as much as she could.
Catherine had just begun her third year when she disappeared. Three weeks earlier, she had moved with her best friend to an apartment on Hill Street, a dead end behind an Irish pub called Patrick’s.
Gerry said: “She was at a friend’s house on Saturday night for a movie night. They were Catherine and three friends. I think they drank some beers and pizza. There was a lot of noise in the nightclubs at the time, so they didn’t come out this weekend. “
Catherine Maguire (Image: North Wales Police)
The friends who joined Catherine tonight are the last people known to have spoken to her. Gerry had last spoken to his daughter on the phone last Tuesday, when Catherine seemed pleased with her new accommodation. She told him: “I like it here, it’s nice, cozy and toasted, no problems.”
Although Catherine and her boyfriend had moved into the Hill Street apartment, they had not yet signed a lease with First Living. They were due to finalize the documents at 3pm on Monday, but Catherine did not arrive at the company’s office.
Her friend suggested that she had returned to her family. But when the friend contacted Katherine’s family at 7:30 p.m. the next day, it became clear that she had disappeared. “We thought, ‘Wait a minute, that’s not typical,'” Gerry said.
Catherine Maguire was filmed walking down South Stack Road in Holyhead the day she disappeared
Gerry immediately called North Wales police, who found that Catherine had bought a return ticket from Bangor to Holyhead on Monday morning. Gerry and Wendy were able to identify their daughter by video surveillance at Holyhead Station, which showed she was there around 11:30 a.m. Then a doorbell camera caught her walking in front of Holyhead High School on South Stack Road, wearing a black coat and a light handbag.
Catherine’s last reported visit was at 1:18 p.m. in front of the RSPB Nature Reserve’s cafe. A shepherd sitting in a parked van said she was seen walking past the cafe, up the hill to the parking lot.
“I only saw still images from the CCTV camera that day,” Gary said. “I don’t know how she behaved, whether she was on her phone or something.
“Catherine’s course teacher said she was quiet and kept to herself, but she was up to the task. She had spent her first two years. I talked to her GP and the only medical problem she had was asthma. No flags were raised.
“She planned to take a year at the end of her course. He had just received a passport in February and hoped to travel, probably around Europe. He was considering pursuing a master’s degree in the same subject, but going to another university. Catherine had planned for the future, she said, “I’ll do this, Dad.”
Catherine’s parents want to hear from someone who has information about her disappearance
Catherine’s family and their friends have spent a lot of time looking for her, both in Holyhead and Bangor. They distributed countless flyers and posters in both areas and spoke to university students, but the disappearance remains a mystery.
Gerry said: “Some people can leave for a long time and then come back. We just don’t know. The terrible thing about our family is that we don’t know what happened. Catherine’s younger brother thinks the world about her. The two of them sometimes sat until the early hours, just chatting about garbage. He was ruined.
“How did we do?” This is something surreal. We keep thinking that something like this happens to other people. It doesn’t make any sense. We had problems with sleep, everyday life is very difficult. People outside look inward and think, ‘They’re doing well.’ But we are not doing well. It’s just a bold front. “
Catherine is about 5 feet 5 inches tall and is thin. Gerry wants the call to reach anyone who may have been on holiday in Holyhead and seen Catherine at the time of her disappearance.
A police spokeswoman said: “North Wales Police confirm that Catherine is unaccounted for and continues to encourage anyone who has seen Catherine at South Stack, Holyhead on the afternoon of 15 November 2021, or who may have additional information about this missing person, contact us “If you have information, call the North Wales Police on 101, quoting reference number Z167766.
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