Family's 'relief and trepidation' as police search lake after Patricia Finnie's disappearance

Officers arrived yesterday morning at Friars Park, Shoebury, and were soon in the water with an inflatable raft, combing the area.

The two-day search is expected to end today.

Police have confirmed the search is being carried out in connection with missing mother Mrs Finnie, who lived in Linnet Close, Shoebury. She vanished on May 11, 2017, after visiting a friend in Riviera Drive, Southend.

A spokesman for Essex Police said: “Searches are taking place in an area of Shoebury in connection with the missing person investigation into the whereabouts of Patricia Finnie following new information. We are carrying out searches for potential evidence that she may have been in the area after she went missing.”

The investigation had seemingly stalled until “new evidence” which showed six weeks after her disappearance Mrs Finnie’s phone had downloaded data in the Shoebury area was obtained by police.

Witness to yesterday’s search, Mac McAdoo, 35, from Shoebury, said: “I was moved along quite quickly, but there were a large amount of people there around the water. They were moving in a line and were clearly searching for something.”

Last week the Echo exclusively spoke to Mrs Finnie’s husband Gordon and her son Matthew, who told of their heartache at not knowing what had happened and living with the uncertainty.

Mr Finnie, 66, said: “I am relatively relieved.

"If they are doing something like this, it must mean they have got some really substantial information.

"But at the same time, you don’t know what you are wishing for.

"I think relief and trepidation is the best way of describing it. This is very close to home - it is only 400 yards down the road.

"It is the nearest we have been to something that could break the case in the entire time she has been missing.

"I am sure they have specialists and they wouldn’t use them lightly.”

If you have information about Patricia’s disappearance, contact Essex Police on 101.