Family handout
Kyran Durnin was reported missing in August
Gardaí (Irish police) investigating the suspected murder of an eight-year-old boy have resumed a forensic search at his former family home in County Louth.
Kyran Durnin was reported missing in Drogheda at the end of August, but last week gardaí said he is now “presumed dead” and they began a murder investigation.
The terraced property being searched in Dundalk – about 20 miles north of Drogheda – was his family’s home for several years until May 2024.
The search at the rented property in Emer Terrace, in Dundalk, began on Tuesday.
Forensic examinations are being carried out Emer Terrace, Dundalk, where Kyran’s family lived until May this year
Technical and forensic examinations are being carried out in the house, the garden and adjoining open ground at the rear of the terrace.
Gardaí stressed on Tuesday that the “current tenants of this house are not connected in anyway with Kyran or his disappearance”.
Although the missing person inquiry began less than two months ago, Irish broadcaster RTÉ previously reported that detectives believe Kyran may have been killed more than two years ago.
“How could a child go missing from their family and their community for two years and nobody report it to any authorities?” asked Tanya Ward, chief executive of the Children’s Rights Alliance in the Republic of Ireland.
“It’s shocking and disturbing and confounding really for those of us that work with children and young people because Ireland has really clear children-first laws and child protection is everyone’s business.”
Ms Ward told the BBC’s Good Morning Ulster programme that it was “the kind of case that’s keeping everyone awake to be honest, that this could happen in Ireland in 2024”.
The Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Simon Harris has also expressed his concern over the case, describing it as “utterly horrifying”.
The family’s previous contact with Irish child protection services is now the subject of an independent national review.
Tusla, the state agency responsible for child welfare and protection, has also said it it carrying out an internal review of its interactions with Kyran’s family.
Open ground in the vicinity of Emer Terrace is also being searched by gardaí
Purported move to Northern Ireland?
Conor Lally, security and crime editor of The Irish Times, said: “It really is a heart-breaking case. It’s also a very unusual case.”
He described it as “worrying” that Kyran’s last known school attendance was more than two and a half years ago.
“It does appear from speaking to garda sources that, at that stage, the family had floated the idea locally that they were going to relocate to Northern Ireland,” Mr Lally told Good Morning Ulster.
He said the fact that Kyran did not return to school for the start of the following academic year “wouldn’t have really raised any concern because people believed that the family were relocating out of that area”.
BBC News NI has asked Tusla if its staff had been led to believe that the family had moved to Northern Ireland, but the agency declined to answer that question.
Neither the gardaí nor the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) will confirm if any investigations have been carried out in Northern Ireland in relation to Kyran’s disappearance.
The PSNI referred all queries to the gardaí as it is the force leading the investigation, but a garda spokeswoman said she could not “comment on the specifics of any investigative actions”.
Gardaí stressed that the current occupants of the house are not involved in the case
Timeline of what has been confirmed so far
2021 – 2022 – Kyran was a pupil at a national [primary] school near his home in Dundalk, but he did not return to the school after the 2022 summer holidays.May 2024 – Kyran’s family moved out of their home in Emer Terrace in Dundalk, where they had been living for a number of years. Unknown date in August 2024 – Tulsa, the Irish state agency responsible for child protection, alerted gardaí about “a significant concern about Kyran”.28 August 2024 – The approximate dateof the last sighting of the boy and his mother in Drogheda, according to a missing person report made to gardaí.30 August 2024 – Kyran and his 24-year-old mother Dayla Durnin were reported missing from their home in Drogheda. 4 September 2024 – Gardaí issued a public missing persons appeal, seeking help to find Dayla and Kyran.16 October 2024 – Gardaí said they now believed that “Kyran is missing, presumed dead” and they confirmed they have begun a murder inquiry.21 October 2024 – Acting under a search warrant, gardaí take possession of the Durnins’ former family home in Emer Terrace, Dundalk.22 October 2024 – a forensic examination of the house, garden and nearby open ground began. Officers also said they had identified Kyran’s mother’s whereabouts.
Source link : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c93q5p0051ko
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Publish date : 2024-10-23 10:42:00
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