Catrin Maguire (22) went missing on the 15th of November 2021 from the Holyhead (Wales) area, very close to her parent's house. Catrin had been studying at Bangor University, and alarm bells were rung for her parents when she failed to check in for the usual weekly check-in. Catrin had also been expected to meet her friend on Monday to sign a tenancy agreement for the flat they'd been staying in, but she never showed.
Instead of meeting her friend to sign the tenancy agreement, Catrin had bought a return ticket from Bangor to Holyhead, where her parents lived. In the early afternoon of the 15th, CCTV caught Catrin walking just 150 yards from her parents' house. She was last seen at 1.18pm walking near the café of the RSPB nature reserve. A shepherd sitting in a parked van said they saw her walk past the café and up the hill towards the car park.
Catrin was described as happy-go-lucky, and she had no reported or rumored mental health issues. The last people known to have spoken to Catrin were her friends (2 days earlier) whom she had met with for a movie night in Bangor.
The Landlady
However, something had shaken Catrin 2 weeks before she went missing. She had allegedly been verbally abused and left shaken by her landlady who had been involved in the letting of Catrin's previous accommodation. This may have stemmed from the fact that the landlady had not informed Catrin or her friend before they moved in that building work would be taking place in the flat above - which would interfere with their right to peaceful living.
Catrin's parents also explained, that the girls had started their tenancy in August 2021 to find the flat ridden with mould. Gerry and Wendy claim water was coming in through a bay window and the carpet was filthy. After six buckets' worth of carpet cleaning the parents said the water coming out of it was still dark brown. Holes had been drilled in the hall ceiling. The entrance and back garden were filled with work materials while scaffolding poles meant windows could not be fully opened.
"I was appalled," said Wendy, 51. "I told Catrin: 'You're not staying here – it's disgusting.' But she was 22. The last thing you do is say no because they will do it. There was so much mould that Catrin's asthma came back within 10 days. That was after 10 years of not having it."
Catrin emailed a complaint to the landlady on August 10 asking that the carpet be cleaned or replaced. Later that day the woman entered the home uninvited, went into Catrin's room, and started shouting at her. Catrin and witnesses alleged that the landlady had screamed at her: "You're a vile young woman – you come across as sweet and timid but look at you. I expected better from homegrown." The landlady allegedly threw her own phone on the floor and stamped on it in rage before her partner dragged her out of the property.
Wendy remembers Catrin phoning to ask: "Can I stay a few nights? I don't like living here anymore, I'm scared." Catrin stayed in the family home for about four nights but felt she was missing out on the student experience and decided to return to the Bangor flat. Her parents were concerned. Gerry recalls telling Catrin: "She's come into your home and done this? As far as I'm concerned that contract is null and void." Wendy said that although Catrin was "not a social animal" she started to go out more so she didn't have to spend time in the flat. She began sleeping with a wedge under the bedroom door.
Catrin was able to move out in late September when the rotting ceiling above the bay window in her flatmate's room collapsed onto her settee and Gwynedd Council deemed the property "uninhabitable". Catrin spent three weeks at the family home before she and the flatmate moved into a new flat in Hill Street, Bangor, behind an Irish pub called Patrick's.
Despite the dilapidation of the previous flat the landlady's partner sent emails demanding money from Catrin and her flatmate due to their nine-month rental contract. Messages show he initially asked they pay rent for the next three months before dropping the request to two. Wendy dubbed it an attempt to "take advantage" of two young woman who were "too nice". After speaking with her family Catrin refused to pay the £822 demanded.
Gerry said a "brilliant" letting agent allowed Catrin and her friend to move into the Hill Street home before signing an agreement. Although stressed by the fallout from the last tenancy Catrin was up to date with university assignments and her GP was aware of no issues beyond her asthma. She had recently got a passport so she could take a gap year after finishing her course. Her final conversation with her parents – six days before she went missing – was a phone call.
On the call Catrin was much happier, describing her flat as toasty and saying "this is much better". The family discussed how Catrin's brother had just passed his driving test and they laughed as catrin mentioned that there was a spider and it seemed to be following her.
However, they went on to describe that "on Tuesday November 16, 2021, instead of having our dedicated weekly chat with Catrin, at 7.30pm the phone rang and it wasn’t Catrin. It was her flatmate asking if Catrin was with us as she hadn’t seen Catrin for a couple of days and Catrin had failed to turn up for a pre-arranged signing for the new tenancy agreement.
The police revealed that Catrin's phone had been turned off manually on the Monday, just after her friend had sent a text reminding her to sign the tenancy agreement, just after she had been spotted on CCTV in Holyhead near the nature reserve.
Wendy, Catrin's mother, believes that she travelled to meet up with someone and had booked a return ticket in case they didn't show up. She also believes her daughter may have been pregnant due to some weight loss and a lack of sanitary products among her belongings. She also believes that the stress of being pregnant added to the stress of the landlady situation may have contributed to her decision to run away.
During the initial investigation, sniffer dogs had followed Catrin's scent from the town centre before losing it in the top car park in South Stack (near the reserve). They searched the entire area close to the cliffs and picked up no scent. So it's possible she was picked up by a car in the car park.