The 16-day excavation for the remains Charles Brooke Pickard ended on Friday without result in south Kerry but the major investigation will continue, both gardaí and a son of the missing man have said.
Gardaí and army personnel using specialised equipment had excavated a site near the remote mountain pass of Ballaghisheen close to where Mr Pickard’s van was burnt out 25 years ago.
The missing man’s son, Crohan, who was aged seven at the time and the second youngest of Charles and Penny Pickard’s four children, says the family are still hopeful of finding “peace”.
“The last few weeks have been very stressful, but the investigation has not died away and we are hopeful that someone will come forward with the location,” Crohan said.
Now a father of five, Crohan lives in the Caherdaniel area. The priority for the family was “peace, not vengeance,” he said. They wanted the peace of mind of knowing what happened his father and where his remains lay.
He had confidence in the gardaí who had been”amazing” at keeping the family in the loop this past two weeks. This was a fresh investigation and the original investigating team were liaising with the new Garda team, so there was fresh minds meeting old minds, he said. A lot of new technology was also available now.
Meanwhile Supt Flor Murphy, who is leading the new inquiry in south Kerry, said gardaí are liaising with police forces in the UK and mainland Europe.
Clearance and excavation work began at first light on September 14th on a site, approximately 40 sq metres , in a forest clearing at Derrenageeha near the high mountain pass of Ballaghisheen ( Bealach Oisin, Oisín’s Way) near where Mr Pickard’s van was found burnt out in May, 1991.
A renewed appeal to the public by gardaí earlier this year had elicited fresh information which pointed to the site.
Mr Pickard, who had moved from the UK to live in south Kerry, was last seen being bundled into his van at White Strand, Castlecove by armed and masked men on Friday April 26th, 1991 after setting out from home earlier that morning to go turf-cutting.
His wife Penny and the couple’s four children aged 15, 11, 7 and 5, never saw him again.