Police in Ecuador say they have found a body believed to be that of an Irish engineer who was kidnapped with his driver in the jungle 10 months ago.
The remains of two men were discovered around 100 miles north-east of the capital Quito, in the El Chaco region.
The bodies are believed to be those of Mr John Buckley, originally from Kimucklin, Clara, Co Offaly, and his driver, Mr Luis Diaz, according to local media reports.
However, the Department of Foreign Affairs said yesterday there had been no confirmation of the reports or positive identification of the bodies.
Mr Buckley's family, some of whom still live in Kilmucklin, yesterday declined to comment on the reports and said they had not been aware of the apparent discovery.
Mr Buckley was 64 at the time of the kidnapping and had been living with his wife and daughter in Britain before his abduction.
The engineer, who is believed to have had dual British and Irish citizenship, disappeared on October 2nd, 2002, while working on a pipe-laying project approximately halfway between the capital and the Colombian border.
It is thought that his kidnappers were in contact via e-mail with the company which Mr Buckley worked for, the Argentina-based oil firm Techint, demanding an unknown sum of money for his release.
After apparently offering money to the kidnappers, it became clear by mid-December that the funds had not secured his release.
Techint later offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to Mr Buckley's rescue.
Since then, however, there had been no news of the men or information about their kidnappers.
Father Martin Burke, a local priest, said the family had been deeply traumatised by the disappearance.
"I was talking to a member of the family last week and they had got no further information at that point. They are very reticent and very disturbed about what has happened," he said.
"We are keeping him in our prayers. Even though he left here a long time ago, he still has family here and the neighbours know him."
Detectives were preparing to travel to El Chaco yesterday in search of more details.
There have been a number of kidnappings and abductions in the oil-rich provinces of Ecuador and Colombia in recent years.
In a single month in 2001, both countries arrested almost 60 members of a gang they suspected of kidnapping 10 engineers and oil workers.
Colombian authorities have said the gang were responsible for at least eight separate kidnappings in Ecuador, mainly of foreigners, since 1990.
