A SPECIALIST police marine unit will tomorrow (Friday, March 15) begin combing a stretch of river for a missing woman – while a bail application is made for the man accused of killing her.

Pamela Jackson, 55, has not been seen since Saturday, March 2, when she spoke to her son Joe at their home in The Crescent, Chester-le-Street, County Durham.

Mr Jackson became alarmed when it became clear his mother had not been staying with a friend, as he had thought.

Since then police have made extensive inquiries in and around Chester-le-Street in a bid to find any clues as to where Ms Jackson could have gone. They have also arrested and charged her partner, 50-year-old Adrian Muir with her murder.

Tomorrow, officers from Northumbria Police's marine unit will be out on the River Wear covering an area between Durham County Cricket Club's ground and heading north to Fatfield.

The members of the unit will be in small boats, not diving in the water.

Chief Inspector Elaine Taylor said today: “It is now one week since Pamela was reported missing and in that time there has been a tremendous amount of work carried out to try and determine what has happened to her.

“We are continuing to explore every possibility and following up all the actions we would normally do to locate a high-risk missing person.

"The specialists from the marine unit and the search and rescue volunteers will provide expert and additional support for our own teams."

Ms Jackson and her son live at a three-bedroomed house in The Crescent, and earlier this week search-trained officers went through rubbish bins and gardens of houses in the neighbourhood.

Their work has since extended to a number of locations, including the railway viaduct and embankment in the town centre, The Bottoms nature reserve, Congburn Wood and land areas bordering the River Wear from south of the town centre to junction 63 of the A1(M).

This work continued today and will carry on for the next few days, with the police teams helped by the volunteers from Teesdale and Weardale Search and Rescue on Sunday.

A bail application will be made tomorrow before Judge James Goss at Newcastle Crown Court by his barrister, Tony Davis.

Anyone with information should contact the police on 101.