It has been a long haul for the Tuohey family, but more than 14 years after their son and brother Shane was taken from them, the events surrounding his death are to be independently examined.
The family – from Derrycooley, Rahan, Tullamore, Co Offaly – believes gardaí had their minds made up that the 23-year-old turf-cutter had taken his own life even before his body was found in the river Brosna, a week after his disappearance.
They believe he was subjected to sustained bullying and intimidation in the months leading up to his death.
He had gone out for the evening and never came home. He was last seen alive in the early hours of February 2nd, 2002, trying to get a lift in a taxi from Clara to his home.
His family claims he was seeking to travel home in the taxi with other local men and that one of them relayed details of what happened on the night that they believe were not investigated properly.
Search party
Mr Tuohey’s father, Eamon, said when a local search party was looking for his son, a young man approached him and said he had been in the taxi with another man when Shane tried to get a lift with them.
Mr Tuohey claims this man told him the other person in the taxi had deliberately opened the car door as Shane was leaning into the vehicle to speak to the driver. He said the door hit Shane in the face, knocking him against a wall.
Shane Tuohey’s brother Edwin says the man relayed the same story to him, suggesting Shane was left with a head injury after the incident.
Both Eamon and Edwin Tuohey said that when they reported this to the Garda, the man they named as having struck Shane with the taxi door was not interviewed for six months. They also say the man who had relayed the information to them changed his story when interviewed.
Threat
The family’s distress was compounded when
Eamon Tuohey
was convicted in 2008 of threatening to kill three men he believed were involved in his son’s death. He admitted making a threat to Garda Insp Aidan Boyle that he would kill the men unless gardaí investigated them as part of the inquiry. He was given a five-year jail term, though the sentence was suspended.
The Tuoheys believe CCTV footage gathered in Clara on the night Shane disappeared, which had gone missing until it was found in Portlaoise Garda station last year, may now provide vital information about his movements and those of the persons of interest in the case.
The family is not satisfied with the Garda findings, the postmortem conclusion or the inquest, which found he had died following accidental drowning in the Brosna.
However, his family says local gardaí and a woman – who claimed she was Shane’s girlfriend but had never actually been in a relationship with him – were responsible for introducing the suicide theory into the case.
They believe it was without foundation and that it had adversely impacted all aspects of the case, from the Garda’s investigation to the postmortem and subsequent inquest.
