An urgent appeal for information to find Disappeared victim Columba McVeigh has been made as the latest search for his remains ends.
The Co Tyrone teenager was abducted, killed and secretly buried by the Provisional IRA in 1975.
The Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains (ICLVR) has conducted six unsuccessful searches at Bragan Bog in Co Monaghan since 1999, covering more than 26 acres.
In a joint statement, the UK and Irish Commissioners Rosalie Flanagan and Tim Dalton said it is “very disappointing” that the latest search has ended without finding Mr McVeigh’s remains.
“We are conscious that this is a very distressing and difficult time for the McVeigh family who have shown remarkable courage and resilience over many years,” they said.
“But they can be assured that the commission will never close the book on a case while there is still the possibility that the information we need can be brought forward and acted upon.”
They said they are urgently renewing their appeal for information to help to find Mr McVeigh.
“All information that comes to the commission is treated in the strictest confidence and can only be used to locate and recover the remains of those still missing,” they said.
“Our mission is entirely humanitarian on behalf of the families who will continue to suffer until the remains of their loved one are found and returned to them for Christian burial.
“That is why we want to urgently renew our appeal for information.”
ICLVR lead investigator Jon Hill described having to take the decision to end the search as “bitterly disappointing”.
“This was a particularly frustrating search for all concerned,” he said.
“While we started over a year ago on what turned out to be an area of just over four acres of difficult terrain we lost several months due to the severe weather last winter and this summer.
“The final phase when we reached the tree line was particularly challenging.
“But every day we started in the hope that that would be the day we would find Columba and the disappointment that we haven’t is deeply felt by everyone on the search team whose hearts go out to the McVeigh family.”
Mr Hill said he believes Mr McVeigh was buried at Bragan Bog, and urged anyone with any further information that can help in a future search to come forward.
“I remain convinced that Columba was taken to Bragan Bog nearly 50 years ago and was buried there,” he said.
“Equally, I have no doubt that the information we have been working on was given in good faith.
“But we haven’t found him which can only mean that he’s not where we were told to look.
“We will review our work as we always do in these circumstances but clearly we need those who have information to think again to see if there is anything further that they can tell us that will get us to the place we need to be.
“If credible information is forthcoming and the Commissioners accept that there are good grounds for us to search again then we will be back.
“But we can’t make that case until we have more to go on.”
Seventeen people were disappeared by republican paramilitaries during the Troubles.
Aided by the ICLVR, which was set up by the UK and Irish governments to investigate their whereabouts, 13 have been found over the last two decades.
The remains of Mr McVeigh, former monk Joe Lynskey, British Army captain Robert Nairac and Seamus Maguire, who was in his mid-20s and from near Lurgan, Co Armagh, have never been recovered.
Co Down hairdresser Lisa Dorrian, who vanished in the post-Troubles era from a caravan park in Ballyhalbert, Co Down, in 2005, is now considered one of the remaining five Disappeared victims whose bodies are yet to be found.
Republican paramilitaries were not suspected in her case.
The ICLVR can be contacted by telephone: 00800-55585500 International: +353 1 602 8655, email to Secretary@iclvr.ie or by post to: ICLVR PO Box 10827
CrimeStoppers can also be contacted on 0800 555 111 and the untraceable anonymous online form is at www.crimestoppers-uk.org.
