Gardaí investigating the disappearance of Kyran Durnin, the Co Louth boy suspected of having been murdered, are following up on a “huge volume” of calls from the general public.
Some of the calls have included claimed sightings of the boy, which detectives hope will aid them to establish when he was last seen alive, and whether that was over two years ago as suspected.
As a search and excavation operation at the former Durnin family home in Dundalk concluded on Thursday evening, with no major discoveries made, gardaí were expected to search another property connected to the family in Drogheda.
However, detectives appeared to be no closer to making arrests, with sources saying it would be a “strategic error” to arrest any persons of interest at this point in the investigation. They added arrests could be made only when evidence gathered by the Garda provided the grounds for such a move.
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“If you arrest someone now, it is then much harder to arrest them for a second time in the same investigation,” said one source. “You’d have to have new grounds, new evidence, for a second arrest.”
Garda Commissioner Drew Harris said the possibility that a boy had been missing for two years and possibly murdered, and this having gone unnoticed for so long, was an “extraordinary incident”. It was one he had not seen the like of in his more than 40 years in policing, he said. “I cannot think of a similar set of circumstances and, in that way, there is a particular element to this that is difficult to comprehend.”
The investigation team had been trying to identify proof of life since Kyran was last sighted aged six in 2022. “So, I cannot comment specifically on whether Kyran reached his seventh or eighth birthday,” Mr Harris added.
Special Rapporteur on Child Protection Caoilfhionn Gallagher said Kyran’s case was indicative of “real problems” with the State’s child protection system, which had apparently “failed”. This was despite the “admirable rhetoric about trying to make Ireland one of the best places in the world or in Europe to be a child”.
The child and family agency, Tusla, raised a concern with the Garda for Kyran’s welfare on August 29th last. A family member of the boy filed a missing person’s report the following day, which claimed Kyran and his mother, Dayla (24), had just gone missing.
The missing persons report suggested the mother and son’s absence from their home in Drogheda had not been noticed until the morning of August 29th. A missing persons investigation was commenced and an appeal was made to the public for information.
However, investigations since then have found no evidence Kyran was alive at any time since he was last seen at his Dundalk national school close to the end of school year in May or June 2022.
Last week gardaí stood down their missing persons appeal, confirming Ms Durnin had been located in the UK. The Garda added it was assumed Kyran had been killed, with the inquiry into his whereabouts upgraded to a murder investigation.
Garda sources also said while the investigation into Kyran’s assumed killing was a murder inquiry, they had not ruled out the possibility he died in some other way and his death was then concealed.
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