THE grieving family of a woman who went missing almost two years ago are finally due to get closure after permission was granted for an inquest to be held.

An inquiry into the apparent death of mother-of-two Karen Coverdale will be held at Hartlepool County Court on Wednesday, February 1.

Mrs Coverdale's husband, Anthony, had to have permission for the inquest from the Home Office because, although he felt certain his clinically-depressed wife had killed herself in March 2004, her body has never been found.

He said it was the third time she had disappeared and she had attempted suicide twice before - the last time only two days before she vanished.

"I have just found out that we can have an inquest for Karen and I'm relieved that everything it going to be sorted out legally now," said the 43-year-old Mr Coverdale.

"We will have a death certificate and then we hope to have a memorial service for Karen, because so many people want to be able to say goodbye to her in some way.

"Maybe then, we will be able to have come closure and start to rebuild our lives."

Karen has not been seen since she left the family home in Cragside, Ingleby Barwick, Stockton, in a depressed state, saying she was going for a drive. She had just been released from a psychiatric unit.

Her car was found in the North Gare breakwater at Seaton Carew, Hartlepool, four days later, but no other trace of her has never been found.

For months, Anthony said he and their children, Ben, 17, and Alex, 14, hoped she would return but, as time has passed, their faith has dwindled.

"I knew Karen and I think I knew that weekend that we would not be seeing her again," he said.

"I knew that when she went missing for the third time, we would be just looking for her car.

"The last couple of years have been very hard for us all, but in the last six months we had a holiday and I knew we would have to start to get our lives back in order.

"I think the inquest will help us do that. Our only wish is that we had Karen's body."