The precise location a woman led gardaí to in Donabate in an effort to find the remains of a missing boy has now been fully explored and nothing has been found, The Irish Times understands.
That appears to be a significant blow to the inquiry as the information supplied by the woman is the main reason the site in Donabate has been of intense interest to the search team for the past 11 days. The boy, who is missing since he was aged three, is assumed dead. The woman insisted the boy had been buried in the location about four years ago.
However, Garda sources said the search could continue for weeks as the site to be explored is very large, and they have not given up hope that the boy’s remains may still be buried there.
It comes as gardaí caught two people flying drones above the site where they are digging for the boy’s remains. The two incidents are now under investigation by the Garda and the Irish Aviation Authority as they breached an effective “no-fly zone” put in place for the site in Donabate, north Dublin, since the search began last Monday week.
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Gardaí believe the drone operators were trying to record footage and images – including for a media outlet – of the Garda search team carrying out excavations as part of the search.
The large site, off Portrane Road just outside Donabate, was sealed off last Monday week and the search operation began the following morning. The area was marked into grids and now the first grid – which was the area of most interest – has been searched and excavated using diggers, with the search team on Thursday moving on to the next grid section.
The woman supplying the information visited the site with gardaí last Monday week and pointed out a precise location on the large site – a corner field – where she said the boy had been buried. She has since been back to the site, with gardaí, to offer more information.
Based on her input, gardaí sealed off the large site and also decided where they would begin their search. However, that section has now been fully explored, with no remains discovered and nothing else of evidential value found.
In relation to the drones being flown over the site, Garda headquarters said the drones were spotted on Wednesday and Thursday. The drone operators were located in the area and gardaí believe at least one of them was recording footage for distribution to the media.
[ How can a child just disappear without the State even noticing?Opens in new window ]
However, investigators have not ruled out the possibility the incursions into the “no-fly zone” may have arisen from a misunderstanding about the restrictions in place, rather than an intentional breach.
A “geographic zone” has been in place above the site since the search began, meaning drones cannot be flown there until further notice. Usually, no-fly zones are put in place on Garda search sites in the shape of “temporary restricted airspaces”, known as TARs, which are normally for shorter and defined periods.
Gardaí suspect the people flying the drones may have checked for TARs related to the site and when they did not find any, they believed no restrictions were in place. However, both incidents are now being investigated by gardaí and the Irish Aviation Authority.
“An Garda Síochána again appeals to the media to provide gardaí with the space and time to carry out this search operation sensitively and sympathetically for everybody involved,” the Garda said, adding any footage or images captured should not be published.
The missing boy was living in Donabate when he vanished about four years ago. The alarm was only raised by Tusla, the child and family agency, with gardaí last Friday week. Checks on a social welfare payment claim related to the child raised questions about his location and welfare.
Gardaí now believe he died or was killed about four years ago and that his body was buried to conceal his death, which went unnoticed in the intervening years. He had initially been given up for adoption before being returned to his family, with Tusla ending its involvement with the family in 2020.
