Human remains which may be those of Brendan Megraw, who went missing in April 1978, have been recovered from a bog in Co Meath.
Remains were removed from the site at Oristown, near Kells, Co Meath, today. They will be brought to the morgue in Dublin where the State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy is to carry out a postmortem.
Fresh information was supplied to the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains (ICLVR) which led to the find.
The information “refined” what was already known by the commission and led it to return to the site at Oristown, Kells in August to carry out a new survey using advanced geophysical technology.
Mr Megraw (23) was abducted from Twinbrook, Belfast in April 1978 by the IRA who then murdered and buried him. He was awaiting the birth of his only child.
A number of previous searches at Oristown had failed to find where he was buried.
The remains were spotted by a forensic archaeologist who was supervising the clearance of drains on the bog.
DNA testing will be needed to confirm the identity but many, including Mr Megraw’s family, are satisfied it is him.
Mr Megraw was one of 16 victims murdered and buried in secret by the IRA known as the Disappeared.
The IRA buried Kevin McKee and Seamus Wright, in 1972 in a double grave near Wilkinstown, a short distance from Oristown. Searches have so far failed to find them.
It is also suspected Joseph Lynskey, a former Cistercian monk taken from the Beechmount area of west Belfast in the summer of 1972, was also buried somewhere in the region.
The most high profile of the Disappeared was Belfast mother of ten Jean McConville whose remains were found on Shelling Hill beach in Co Louth.