The remains of a missing fisherman were found by chance almost two decades after he disappeared by search and recovery volunteers testing a sonar scanner off a marina just a few hundred yards from where he had last been seen alive.
Barry Coughlan (23) from Lady’s View, Church Road, Crosshaven, Co Cork was last seen alive late on the night of April 30th, 2004 when he left the Moonduster pub in Crosshaven to drive home in his recently purchased 1998-registered Toyota Corolla, an inquest heard.
Mr Coughlan’s father, Jim, told the inquest that the family became alarmed the following day when his son failed to return home that night as it was completely out of character for him. They reported him missing the following day to An Garda Síochána.
Mr Coughlan’s sister, Donna, said her brother had never missed a day at work fishing on a fishing vessel out of Castletownbere and he had no history of depression and was in good form when she last saw him. “He was going on about buying a house, he was making plans for the future.”
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James McClean and Karen Austin told how they met Mr Coughlan in the Moonduster pub on the night of April 30th and while Mr McClean said he had no idea how much drink Mr Coughlan had taken, he was not drunk. Ms Austin said he was steady on his feet when he left the pub.
Ger O’Callaghan, a retired Garda Sergeant based in Crosshaven, told how gardaí launched a search operation, harvesting CCTV footage around the village while a search was conducted along the coastline involving gardaí, volunteers, the RNLI and the Naval Service.
Naval Service divers carried out searches at various locations along the coastline for several kilometres and Mr Coughlan’s family put up missing posters all around the area and made continuous media appeals for information, while gardaí also contacted Interpol.
Christopher O’Donovan, a volunteer with the Cork Missing Persons Search and Recovery charity, told how he and his fellow volunteers, Dinny Kiely and Kieran Coniry, were testing a Towfish Sonar Scanner in Crosshaven Harbour on May 25th, 2021 when they saw an image on the screen.
Volunteer divers with the organisation, David Varian and David O’Leary, went down and found a car upside down on its roof embedded in the mud on the seabed at a depth of 8.4m. When they cleaned mud off its registration, they saw it matched Mr Coughlan’s car.
Garda crime examiner Edward Meaney told how he recovered skeletal remains in the car which DNA tests confirmed were those of Mr Coughlan.
The inquest heard the car was running and the windows were fully closed when it entered the sea.
Coroner for Cork South, Frank O’Connell, said it was impossible to establish the actual cause of death but said it was reasonable to conclude that Mr Coughlan had drowned after entering the sea in his car.
He said he believed it was most likely Mr Coughlan’s car entered the water accidentally, particularly given it was just 5 metres from the pier’s edge and there was no evidence of him suffering from any depression. The jury agreed and returned an accidental death verdict.
Mr Coughlan’s brother-in-law, Kieran Smith said the family were hugely grateful for all the support they had received from the local community, volunteers and gardaí, particularly Sgt Ger O’Callaghan and Garda Ger Fitzpatrick.
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