{"id":39378,"date":"2025-09-02T20:28:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T20:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/39378\/"},"modified":"2025-09-02T20:28:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T20:28:07","slug":"boy-missing-assumed-dead-spent-time-in-care-before-he-was-returned-to-family-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/39378\/","title":{"rendered":"Boy missing assumed dead spent time in care before he was returned to family \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A boy who has been missing from Dublin for up to four years, and is now feared dead<\/a>, was in care for a period during the early years of his life, The Irish Times has learned. <\/p>\n

He was then returned to the family setting before vanishing, apparently because he had died and his remains had been disposed of.<\/p>\n

Garda\u00ed<\/a> believe the child, who would be aged 7 if he was still alive, vanished when aged about three years old, though his disappearance apparently went unnoticed.<\/p>\n

In reply to queries, Tusla<\/a> said \u201cat the request of the family, our services had previous engagement with this child and their family, and these services ceased in 2020\u201d. <\/p>\n

It added \u201cno new referral or new information of concern was received\u201d until last week when it contacted garda\u00ed to flag its concerns for the child\u2019s welfare.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs is normal process, where there is a serious incident or death involving a child open to, or previously known to our service, we conduct a review of our engagement and that review is sent to the National Review Panel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tusla said it was responding to queries in a bid \u201cto be open and transparent with the public without impacting\u201d the Garda investigation now underway.<\/p>\n

Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly said that investigation, which began last Friday, had so far been \u201cunable to either locate the boy, identify any information about his current whereabouts or evidence that he\u2019s currently alive\u201d. <\/p>\n

He added it was an offence to withhold information during Garda investigations and that the inquiry was a \u201chuge priority\u201d for the Garda.<\/p>\n

\"BarriersBarriers are erected at an area of open land between Donabate and Portrane where garda\u00ed were on Tuesday conducting a search for and investigation into what happened to a young boy. Photograph: Bryan O\u2019Brien <\/p>\n

A search for the boy\u2019s remains commenced yesterday morning at open ground off Portrane Road just outside Donabate in north County Dublin after garda\u00ed sealed off the area on Monday night. <\/p>\n

A Garda search team could be seen combing the site throughout yesterday, with a cadaver dog brought onto the land for a time. One specific area was cordoned off at about teatime.<\/p>\n

The search operation, which was suspended last night, was expected to resume on Wednesday morning and may continue for several days as excavation was anticipated.<\/p>\n

Investigating garda\u00ed, based at Swords Garda station in north Dublin, have spoken to members of the boy\u2019s family, including his parents, since the alarm was raised late last week. <\/p>\n

It appears a social welfare payment related to the child was being claimed and that checks made about the boy, to support the claim, gave rise to concern.<\/p>\n

Tusla, the child and family agency, was informed and last Friday it raised its concerns for the boy\u2019s welfare with the Garda. <\/p>\n

An investigation was immediately commenced and, on the basis of speaking to some people linked to the child, garda\u00ed now strongly suspect he has been dead for a number of years.<\/p>\n

They sealed off the plot of land on the outskirts of Donabate on suspicion the boy\u2019s remains may have been buried there, in an apparent bid to conceal his death. <\/p>\n

Garda\u00ed are trying to establish how the boy died, specifically whether it was accidental, due to natural causes, or if foul play was a factor.<\/p>\n

Over the weekend, a property at The Gallery, Donbate, was sealed off for a Garda search and forensic examination. Garda\u00ed believe the child lived there around the time he vanished.<\/p>\n

Garda Headquarters said the investigation was being led by a senior investigating officer from an incident room at Swords Garda station. It urged anyone with information to come forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A boy who has been missing from Dublin for up to four years, and is now feared dead,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39379,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,8030,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,8504],"class_list":{"0":"post-39378","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-garda-siochana","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-ireland","17":"tag-latest-news","18":"tag-latestnews","19":"tag-main-news","20":"tag-mainnews","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-top-stories","23":"tag-topstories","24":"tag-tusla"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}