THE BODY of a man whose remains were discovered on Christmas Eve is that of missing father-of-three Stephen O’Meara.
Mr O’Meara (26), from the Rosehill estate in Wicklow town, had disappeared on August 6th.
He had told his partner Catherine Green that he was going to meet someone and would be back within an hour. He was never seen alive again.
His remains were found in a wooded area at Ballydonnell near Red Cross in Co Wicklow, about 20km from his home. The find followed the arrest of a man last Monday who was questioned in relation to the disappearance.
Mr O’Meara had three children aged between one and five. He was unemployed at the time of his disappearance.
When last seen alive, he was wearing black Manchester United tracksuit bottoms, a dark grey tracksuit top, black and white Nike Air Max runners and a thick gold chain. Clothes matching that description were found at the scene.
His parents, John and Veronica O’Meara, attended the search on Christmas Eve. They had made several appeals for information in the past about their son’s whereabouts.
The area was preserved for examination by the Garda Technical Bureau and Mr O’Meara’s body was taken to Loughlinstown hospital for a postmortem by Assistant State Pathologist Khaled Jaber on St Stephen’s Day.
The postmortem results will not be released by investigating gardaí for operational reasons.
Mr O’Meara’s removal will take place to St Patrick’s Church, Wicklow on Wednesday at 6.45pm, and funeral Mass will be held on Thursday.
