The 72 acres of Santry Demesne, a public park in north Dublin, do not, at first glance, seem the ideal spot to conceal a body.
The park is surrounded by busy roads and, aside from collections of trees around the perimeter, it consists mostly of large open spaces
However, David Karl Wiium believes there is a good chance this park is the location of the body of his brother, Jón Jónsson, the 41-year-old Icelandic man who went missing, seemingly without trace, on February 9th, 2019.
Mr Wiium’s belief is based on two anonymous notes, one delivered to Ballymun Garda station in 2022 and another handed in to a priest’s house nearby the following year.
The notes said Mr Jónsson’s remains could be found among trees near a body of water in Santry Demesne, presumably a reference to the lake in the park’s northeast corner.
Gardaí believed the notes were credible, so they searched a section of the park in February last year. Nothing was found. Tests of DNA and fingerprints from the notes yielded nothing.
Mr Jónsson’s family are not ready to give up on this lead. “The search has not been properly done,” Mr Wiium said on Friday, as he prepared to visit the park with his mother and sister.
That is one of the reasons Mr Wiium, his mother and sister have returned to Ireland – to convince gardaí to upgrade the case from a missing persons investigation to a criminal inquiry and to search the entire park. The family are due to meet senior gardaí on Saturday when they will set out their case.
Mr Jónsson had arrived in Ireland on February 8th, 2019, to attend a poker festival in the Bonnington Hotel in Whitehall, north Dublin, and then to do some sightseeing around the country. His partner Kristiana Guðjónsdóttir arrived on February 9th.
The tournament was a big draw for Mr Jónsson. Most forms of gambling, including poker, are illegal in Iceland. Online poker is popular, however, and he was an avid player.
After a night gambling, he returned to his room briefly before leaving the hotel, having left his passport, wallet and room key behind.
The last confirmed sighting was on CCTV a few hundred metres away at 11am. From there, the trail ran cold.
“Did he take his own life? I really doubt it,” Mr Wiium said. Mr Jónsson lost a lot of money at poker the previous night, but that would be normal for poker players, Mr Wiium said. It is something they generally take in their stride.
“Why would he come to Dublin to take his life? Why would he do it on the first day of his trip? It doesn’t make any sense. Also, his body would have been found.”
Mr Jónsson’s disappearance was a big story in Iceland, drawing significant political and media attention over the last six years.
He’s hard-working, He’s a family man. Does everything he is asked. He was a straight-up guy
The case received some coverage in Ireland, but it took the release of a six-part podcast made by RTÉ and RÚV, which is Iceland’s public service broadcaster, earlier this year to bring the case to widespread public attention.
Mr Wiium and his family took part in the podcast to keep Mr Jónsson’s case in the public eye. He also wanted show the public his brother was more than just a gambler who went missing after a night drinking and playing poker.
“He’s a father. He’s hard working, He’s a family man. He does everything he is asked,” Mr Wiium said. “He was a straight up guy. Just a great guy in general.”
The podcast, which has attracted about one million listens to date, has generated potentially valuable new leads, including information about a man who may have murdered Mr Jónsson.
A source in Iceland told the podcast producers that this man claimed to have killed Mr Jónsson, having intended to murder someone else. The information tallied with two other tip-offs received independently by Mr Jónsson’s sister and stepbrother.
Family members were told that this “hitman” had been contracted by an eastern European criminal organisation to kill a man who was involved in the poker scene in Iceland.
The suspected intended target was attending the poker tournament in the Bonnington. The alleged hitman arrived in Dublin about a week before Mr Jónsson.
The suspect, who is not from Ireland or Iceland, is considered a dangerous criminal who has serious convictions including ones for drugs and extreme violence.
Mr Jónsson’s relatives were told the hitman owed money to organised criminals who run illegal poker clubs in Iceland. One theory they are eager for police to explore is that the hitman was contracted to kill a man who had previously come into conflict with this same group of criminals and had agreed to do it to pay off his debt.
How much stock does Mr Wiium place in the theory that his brother was killed by a hitman, having been mistaken for another poker player?
“I’m not going to use the words ‘almost certain’. But I’m almost certain someone knows something. I’m almost certain something happened that was not the fault of Jón alone,” he said.
“But if you get sources who come forward and tell not just one person, not just two, but three persons you have to follow up.”
The family have been frustrated at times with the Garda investigation, including a seeming lack of co-operation with Icelandic police. Neither police force has interviewed the suspected hitman and a warrant has not been issued for his arrest. He is not believed to be in Ireland or Iceland.
On Friday afternoon, Mr Wiium and his sister Anna visited Santry Demesne for the first time, accompanied by podcast producer Liam O’Brien. As the rain got heavier, they struggled to operate their umbrellas. “We don’t use these in Iceland, it’s too windy,” she said.
The siblings are interested in the parts of the park that were searched by gardaí 12 months ago. They are even more interested in the parts that were not searched.
They are shown a patch of scrubland near the lake where Garda cadaver dogs had indicated the possible presence of human remains. A digger was brought in to evacuate a small area but nothing was found.
Then they viewed the lake itself. During the search, gardaí criss-crossed the water in a small boat with a sniffer dog on board. In some circumstances, these dogs are capable of detecting human remains under the water.
Garda divers were at the scene, ready to search any part of the water indicated by the dog. As the animal failed to alert the searchers to anything, the divers were not deployed.
Mr Wiium and his sister Anna observed a small island, thick with exposed roots and fallen trees. It can be easily reached by wading through the shallow water.
Using the sniffer dogs, gardaí carried out a brief search of the island, but were unable to properly explore it due to the thickness of the vegetation, they were told.
Mr Wiium noted this area would also fit the description contained in the anonymous notes: near water, beside trees.
He is also interested in another, larger area of the park. This wooded section is not open to the public, but is easily accessible. It is at the opposite end of the park to the lake, but often floods in winter time, when Mr Jónsson went missing, meaning it could also fit the descriptions in the notes.
“I’m not suggesting they dig the whole park up,” Mr Wiium said. “But we want to get better answers.”
Mr Jónsson’s family hope this latest round of publicity will yield more leads and possibly encourage the sender of the notes to get back in touch. Either way, they will not relent, Mr Wiium said. “It’s really hard to do this. But at the same time it’s really hard not to do anything.”
