'Enhance Esra's CCTV like you did for Trevor Deely' - Sister of missing woman

The sister of a mother who disappeared six years ago has pleaded with gardaí to enhance CCTV footage of her car, following a similar move in the case of Trevor Deely.

Esra Uryun (38) was last seen leaving her house in Clondalkin, West Dublin in February 2011.

Her sister Berna Fidan believes Esra was abducted at some point between when she left her home and the discovery of her car in Bray, Co Wicklow that morning.

CCTV later emerged of the vehicle, a grey Renault Twingo, being driven through the Wicklow town towards the car park.

However the driver’s face in the footage - which Berna believes to be Esra’s abductor - cannot be made out.

Ms Fidan said that up to recently she believed there was nothing that could be done to improve the quality of this.

However, in April, gardaí released enhanced footage in the case of another long-term missing person, Trevor Deely (22). Forensics experts enhanced the VHS tape taken from outside Trevor’s office at Bank of Ireland Asset Management on Leeson Street and it shows him being followed by a man he had earlier spoken to on the night of December 8, 2000.

Speaking to Independent.ie, Berna said this new footage offered hope to them that they may finally be able to unmask the person who was driving Esra’s car that day.

“The Trevor Deely case was 17 years ago and they were able to enhance that footage significantly. We know that the footage of Esra’s car was also on VHS so we cannot see a reason why this could not also be enhanced.”

Ms Fidan said she does not believe her sister was driving the car at the time but Ms Uryun was, then Ms Fidan wants proof.

“If Esra was driving the car, I want to know this for sure. I want proof that she got into that car willingly and drove it.”

She continued: “I have gone with many others and we have searched every square inch of Bray. We have trawled through CCTV and we have not been able to find one shred of evidence that Esra was in Bray at all.”

Ms Fidan has requested that gardaí get the tape forensically examined and she is awaiting a response from the investigation team on this.

The London-based sibling has also attempted to get hold of the original footage so that she could get it forensically enhanced herself. She has written to gardaí and the Department of Justice but was later told it wasn’t possible as it would “break the chain of evidence” and could damage and potential future prosecution.

At the start of the investigation it was believed, in some quarters, that Ms Uryun died by suicide. However, Ms Fidan  insists that her sister, a married mother-of-one, did not take her own life.

“I’ve never believed she took her own life because you can’t bury yourself,” she said. “Even if she did throw of herself into the sea she would have popped up at some stage.

“We have searched every inch of that coast but nothing. There were abseilers out searching the rocks. The fishermen went out and several times they searched. It wasn’t just once, they searched again after one, two, and three months.”

The investigation took a bizarre twist almost a year after her disappearance when car keys, belonging to Ms Uryun, were found in a chip shop near Neilstown.

Ms Fidan said they have still not been able to figure out how the keys got there and CCTV footage was overwritten by the time the owner figured out their significance.

None of missing woman’s bank cards have been used and there have been no confirmed sightings since she disappeared.