A former top cop believes the disappearance of teenager Ciara Breen could finally be solved if the author of two anonymous letters comes forward.
Retired Detective Inspector Pat Marry said he believes that the person who sent them to the gardai in 2013 and 2014 could hold the key to finding Ciara’s body.
The 17-year-old vanished on February 13, 1997, after sneaking out of her house in Dundalk, Co Louth – and is feared dead.
The retired detective inspector said he believes the author of the letters was a close associate of the prime suspect in the case who died four years ago.
Mr Marry, who re-examined the case in 2010, told the Irish Sunday Mirror: “We did receive two anonymous letters. It said that we should talk to him [the prime suspect] about it, that he knew something about her disappearance.
“The person might very well know more. There are certainly people who do know more. If the person who wrote the letter was to come forward they might have some knowledge which may lead to where Ciara’s remains are.
“I took up the investigation in 2010 and put it together again and took a different viewpoint on it and was able to come up with more evidence.”
The prime suspect in Ciara’s disappearance died suddenly of a suspected drug overdose while in Garda custody on another matter in 2017.
He had been arrested twice on suspicion of murdering the teen, once in 1999 and again in 2015, but on both occasions the DPP decided not to file charges.
Mr Marry said he believed this man was at one stage close to confessing.
He said: “He almost admitted it to us.
“When we arrested a second time and we were interviewing him and he was crying his eyes out and was down on his knees and just about to pop and tell us and his solicitor came in. He got a second wind then and said nothing to us.”
Mr Marry, who also led the investigation into Rachel O’Reilly’s murder and the probe into the fatal shooting of Det Garda Adrian Donohoe, said he would like to see all 17 acres of Balmer’s Bog searched.
The investigation team carried out a dig of just over two acres of land there in 2015 and unearthed a floral dress he believes belonged to the missing teen.
He continued: “There were 17 acres of bog but we only had money to do two-and-a-half acres.
“I believe her body is in there somewhere. We had an anthropologist on our dig and the bog had been full of drains and we believed she was in one of the drains.
“But when we went digging we discovered somebody had filled in the drain with rubble, to try and build up the bog. We kept going anyway.”
If you have any information about the disappearance of Ciara Breen you can contact the Garda Confidential line on 1800 666 111.
