New picture released of missing east Belfast woman Joanna Craig

A HUSBAND’S heartfelt plea on Thursday for his missing wife to come home to their children has been heard.

The PSNI announced on Thursday afternoon that Joanna Craig has been located.

However, no details have been given as to where she was found or by whom.

“The PSNI would like to thank all media outlets who assisted in appealing for Joanna,” said a police spokesman.

She was last seen at around tea time on Tuesday in the Castlereagh Road area of east Belfast where she lives with her husband Gary, their two sons and a young daughter children.

The 28-year-old left the family home in their black Seat Alhambra car, with the registration number NEZ 9619.

Mr Craig told UTV: “She had arranged for one of her sisters to babysit and she had gone out in the car and we have not heard from her since.

“There has been no contact with her on her phone. We’ve been trying constantly and her phone is now dead.”

Police tracked Mrs Craig’s phone to the Lower Ormeau Road, where they think she may have been at around 9pm on Tuesday.

But it is a mystery as to why she was there as her husband says she does not know anyone who lives in that area.

Gary believes she could have been at a B&B or a hotel in the university area.

Husband and wife Gary and Joanna Craig

Police are using the PSNI helicopter in their search for Joanna, and Mr Craig said friends and family have also been trying to track her down.

“She’s not the kind of person who would behave in this way and because she is the person she is, the police are very concerned that she’s disappeared in this fashion.”

He explained the couple recently lost their business, and Mr Craig was ill in hospital, but it was his wife who kept the family together.

“We’ve had a very stressful year. We lost our business and I was in hospital for a few weeks.”

But Gary said the disappearance was very out of character, and there are “strong grounds for concern”.

Mr Craig told UTV: “I’m hoping that maybe Joanna will hear this and if she is she knows how much we love her, and how much we treasure her.

“She loves the kids. She’s a great mother and we need her back.

“We are so worried about her, we desperately need to hear from her to know that she’s ok.”

He said the couple’s two sons were staying with cousins. “They think they are getting a few days off school.

“I just don’t know how I am going to tell them.”