Gardaí searching for the torso of a teenager who was murdered in recent years have discovered what appeared to be partial skeletal remains at the search site.
However, final confirmation the remains are human was awaited on Thursday night.
“This afternoon gardaí have discovered partial skeletal remains. The Garda Technical Bureau, are at the scene as part of the ongoing operation,” Garda Headquarters, Phoenix Park, Dublin, said.
“The search area remains sealed off and the searches are ongoing. An Garda Síochána has no further comment at this time.”
A Garda search team, including Garda divers and the Garda Dog Unit, have been searching a large piece of waste ground in the north east for the past two days.
The partial remains were found on Thursday but they must now undergo pathology testing to confirm if they are human and, if so, whether they are those of the teenager who was murdered before his remains were dismembered.
Due to legal restrictions arising from a court ruling, the murdered boy cannot be named and other details about the case cannot be disclosed at this time.
The searching that has been underway since Wednesday morning included Garda divers entering the drains system on and around the land, which is next to a local authority housing estate, as gardaí believe great efforts may have been made to conceal the torso.
This includes the possibility the torso was concealed in the drainage system or buried in some way on the site.
Gardaí wanted to find the body part and return it to the boy’s family for burial with the rest of his remains.
However, the criminal investigation continuing into the boy’s murder will also be informed by pathology.
Evidence
And the investigation team was hopeful that if the discovery on made on Thursday proved to be the murdered teenager’s torso a set of complete postmortem results would be available to Garda investigators and for presentation as evidence in any future court actions, if they arise.
A very large area of waste ground beside a local authority estate in the north east remained sealed off on Thursday evening and was expected to be guarded overnight before further examinations and searching on Friday.
While the search involves uniformed gardaí, specialist units were also drafted in to aid the operation and to ensure the area, above and below ground, has been thoroughly searched by the time the operation is complete.
The boy was murdered in recent years in the same region as the search was now under way and his remains were dismembered. While most of his body parts were found by gardaí, his torso had not been recovered.
Gardaí investigating the murder have carried out a number of unsuccessful searches for the boy’s torso in the period since his killing.
The Garda team received information several times about the possible location of the torso but to date searches at those sites have not been successful.
The searching underway for the last two days is based on further intelligence received by the Garda, which the force was treating as credible and believes warrants a very thorough search over a number of days.
