THE BODY of a Co Offaly teenager who had been missing since the early hours of Sunday morning was found yesterday afternoon in the river Barrow.
Shane Gavin (17), from Walsh Island, fell into the river from a low bridge after attending an 18th birthday party in Portarlington Golf Club on Saturday night.
He was last seen in the lobby of the club house at 12.15am when he left without taking one of the buses that had been laid on for those attending the party.
He was wearing only a short-sleeved blue and white T-shirt with a thin red stripe although there were freezing temperatures on Saturday night.
Insp John Nolan from Portlaoise Garda station said Mr Gavin’s death had been a “tragic accident”.
“It looks like he walked home, got lost and fell into the river from a bridge,” he said.
An estimated 300 local people, along with the Boyne water unit, the Civil Defence and the Missing Persons Bureau were involved in the search yesterday which was called off after his body was found at 1.30pm.
Several hundred people turned up on Monday to search the roads and fields around the golf course, which is about four kilometres from the centre of Portarlington.
Insp Nolan, who co-ordinated the search, said he was “overwhelmed” by the response by locals to Mr Gavin’s disappearance.
Walsh Island parish priest Fr Patrick Gaynor described Mr Gavin as a “nice-spoken, quiet fellow” who he said was an enthusiastic member of the local golf society.
Fr Gaynor said the number of people who turned out to search for the teenager showed the level of esteem that he and his family were held in locally.
Mr Gavin attended secondary school in Portarlington. One former school friend tweeted last night: “The whole school was in tears it was unbelievable devastating so I would absolutely love if u could take the time to read this and say a little prayer for him and his family it is very tough on them”.
A postmortem is due to be carried out this morning and the family is hoping that his body can be brought home this evening.
His removal is likely to take place tomorrow evening with the funeral taking place on Friday morning.
