Gardai probe links between missing teen girls

The three girls, Isabel Tache, Shannon Cunningham and Michelle Doyle are all 16 years old and the last two disappearances are thought to be linked.

A fourth teenager, Shanice Coffey (16), who vanished on September 24, also in Cork, was found "safe and well" yesterday.

While Michelle is from Lucan, Co Dublin, she previously lived in Drogheda, Co Louth, as did Shannon, and gardai in Lucan told the Herald that it was believed they knew each other.

The pair both went missing on October 12 and were last seen in the Glanmire area of Cork.

Shannon is of medium build, 5ft 2in, with green eyes, pale complexion and short, brown hair which is usually styled. She was wearing a black hoodie and navy jeans.

Michelle is described as 5ft 6in, 8st, of slight build, with blue eyes and shoulder-length blonde hair.

The Dublin teen went missing for two months earlier this year and her mother Jennifer Dunne expressed concern on Liveline at the time that she may have run off with her killer father, John Doyle.

Doyle (45) was released from Wheatfield prison last February after serving sentences for beating two pensioners to death.

He was jailed in 1984 for stabbing Matthew Coates (84) to death in Clondalkin when he was just 17 years of age. At the time, he was given a sentence of just three years although he stabbed the pensioner 32 times.

He later served 10 years of a 15-year sentence for the killing of Paddy Logan (81) at his farmhouse in Castlejordan, Co Meath in 2000.

hnews@herald.ie