The body of an Irish backpacker who had been missing in a national park in Chile since November has been recovered. His family expressed relief yesterday that they can finally bring his remains home.
Ronan Lawlor (28), from Durrow, Co Laois, had not been in touch with family or friends since November 18th, when he entered the Torres Del Paine park on the Argentina-Chile border.
It is understood his body was found in a crevice in the national park by tourists on Saturday and was recovered by police on Sunday. The Department of Foreign Affairs said yesterday it was working to formally identify and repatriate Mr Lawlor's body.
Aidan Lawlor, Mr Lawlor's cousin, said hearing the body had been found was a "relief given the tragic circumstances". The family had not been informed exactly when his cousin had died and where in the national park his body was found, he said.
"We are waiting on the results of a postmortem and hopefully once that is complete Ronan's body will be released quickly."
Mr Lawlor said the news was broken to the family when they received a phone call from the Department of Foreign Affairs at about 8pm on Sunday.
Mr Lawlor said the family were awaiting news of "specifics" surrounding the death.
Officials said the missing man had entered the Chilean side of the park on November 22nd, but had not been seen since. He last updated the blog which he had used frequently to document his travels on November 17th.
His backpack was found at a hostel in El Calafate, Argentina, last month. An appeal for information about his whereabouts was issued and two backpackers who had travelled on a bus into the park on November 18th with Mr Lawlor identified the area they believed he was hiking to.
Search operations involving sniffer dogs, park rangers and Mr Lawlor's friends, Grainne Lawlor and Barney McCabe, followed. However, the search of a 20sq km area yielded no results and just before Christmas the Chilean authorities informed the Department of Foreign Affairs that they had called off their search.
A statement on the website set up to help find Mr Lawlor said: "The Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed that on Sunday evening a number of items were found with a body which strongly suggested that the body was that of Ronan. Again Ronan's family, Ethel, Oliver and Karl, wish to thank sincerely Grainne and Barney, the extended family, friends, the local community and all who have displayed such kindness, understanding and thoughtfulness, and for the efforts made and support received over the last few very difficult weeks."
Mr Lawlor, an engineering graduate, had quit his job to go travelling on a belated gap year in August. He was due to start a new job in Australia later this year.
