The three had come to break tragic news: the body of their son, James O\u2019Neill \u2013 or Jim, as they knew him \u2013 had been found in the Phoenix Park in Dublin.<\/p>\n
The O\u2019Neills \u2013 Ann, Paul, their daughter Kristine and their son Conor \u2013 had not heard from Jim, a father in his early 40s, for some time. <\/p>\n
[\u00a0Man found dead in Phoenix Park was unidentified for a year, despite ID in pocketOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n But that was not unusual. Jim travelled frequently, living an \u201coff-grid\u201d lifestyle \u2013 often camping outdoors. He didn\u2019t own a phone.<\/p>\n \u201cThe only way you could contact Jim is if he contacted you,\u201d says Paul.<\/p>\n On a previous occasion in 2022 when he was out of touch, a missing-person report was filed with the PSNI. Then Jim, like he always did, just showed up.<\/p>\n This time was different. <\/p>\n The police also delivered a confounding detail: Jim\u2019s body had not been found then, on December 13th, 2024, but more than a year before, on November 17th, 2023. For almost 13 months, his remains had rested in a Dublin morgue, his family unaware for all that time that he had died.<\/p>\n Despite James O\u2019Neill\u2019s name appearing on a CV in a backpack alongside a bicycle recovered near where his body was found, his remains were \u201cunidentified\u201d. The Garda<\/a> had discounted the CV as a false ID following inquiries.<\/p>\n There are other sources of confusion for the O\u2019Neill family. They are troubled over why no public appeal was ever issued by the Garda. <\/p>\n They are confused too that an initial postmortem missed various forms of identification that were inside Jim\u2019s clothing when his body was discovered. <\/p>\n The identifying documents were only found more than a year later by a forensic anthropologist who was instructed to examine the remains to assess age, gender and \u201cdistinguishing skeletal features\u201d that might help identify the body.<\/p>\n The unusual circumstances around the discovery of his remains were outlined in detail to the O\u2019Neill family in a February 2025 letter to their Belfast solicitor P\u00e1draig \u00d3 Muirigh from Dr Myra Cullinane, the Dublin District senior coroner.<\/p>\n Dr Cullinane described in the letter \u2013 seen by The Irish Times \u2013 how the identifying documents were missed in the initial November 2023 postmortem examination as an \u201coversight\u201d by the Coroner\u2019s Service of the Dublin District.<\/p>\n [\u00a0State investigation follows long struggle by Shane Tuohey\u2019s familyOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n \u201cThese documents had not been revealed by any prior examination of the clothing either by An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na or the anatomical pathology technicians of the Dublin District Mortuary,\u201d she wrote in her letter of February 14th, 2025.<\/p>\n She acknowledged this \u201coversight\u201d by the service had \u201ccaused undue delay and distress to your clients for which I sincerely apologise\u201d.<\/p>\n Now, sitting at their kitchen table in Belfast a year after learning their son had died \u2013 and more than two years since his body was found \u2013 Ann looks through photographs. In some of them, Jim is smiling with friends on camping trips.<\/p>\n Paul and Ann have raised concerns about the Garda\u2019s handling of the case and submitted a complaint to Fiosr\u00fa, the Office of the Police Ombudsman<\/a>.<\/p>\n Speaking to The Irish Times, almost every sentence starts with either \u201cHow?\u201d or \u201cWhy?\u201d. They hope their complaint will bring them answers.<\/p>\n Jim\u2019s parents say he was a highly intelligent man who wanted to live life his way. They point to his achievements: he once ran a biodiesel business which he established as a workers\u2019 co-operative; his excellent grasp of mathematics helped him find work as an accountant. He had a wide circle of friends in Belfast, and previously worked for not-for-profit organisation Tools For Solidarity, and the charity Help the Aged.<\/p>\n Paul says his son was \u201calways thinking in a profound and deep way\u201d. <\/p>\n He says Jim was rarely without his bicycle, which he named after adventurer Don Quixote\u2019s horse, Rocinante, from the Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was one of his favourite books. That, in many ways, summed Jim up \u2013 Jim wanted his reality to be what he lived by, regardless of what conventions were,\u201d Paul says. <\/p>\n Although Jim travelled around Ireland and though Europe \u2013 Italy, Scandinavia, France, the Netherlands \u2013 he returned to Belfast regularly for the birthdays of his two teenage children and for Christmas. Jim was separated from his partner.<\/p>\n His parents last saw him in mid-October 2023 when he briefly called to their home. A month later, he was dead.<\/p>\n \u2018There are many rudimentary steps that could have been taken to identify James, and weren\u2019t taken\u2019<\/p>\n \u2014 \u00a0Belfast solicitor P\u00e1draig \u00d3 Muirigh<\/p><\/blockquote>\n His body was discovered on November 17th on the ground in a densely wooded area of the Phoenix Park<\/a>, close to the intersection of Furze Road and Ordinance Survey Road, in the western part of the large Dublin amenity. <\/p>\n On November 21st, four days after his body was found, a postmortem was carried out. The report, seen by The Irish Times, barely fills a page. The section detailing the external examination is just 48 words long. No cause of death is given.<\/p>\n \u201cNo identification has been possible,\u201d reads the autopsy report, which cites the dead man\u2019s name as \u201cJames O\u2019Neill\u201d.<\/p>\n His remains were then stored at the Dublin City Mortuary. It would be more than a year until another examination was undertaken.<\/p>\n On October 14th, 2024, almost a year after Jim\u2019s body was discovered, the coroner\u2019s office asked a forensic anthropologist, Laureen Buckley, to examine the remains with the objective of trying to identify them. <\/p>\n Before she examined them, Buckley \u2013 who has extensive expertise in the analysis of ancient skeletal remains \u2013 contacted the coroner\u2019s office inquiring as to why this was not designated a case similar to those of other remains held by the State, where the remains are listed as unidentified.<\/p>\n Buckley carried out her examination on December 5th, 2024, with her report \u2013 seen by The Irish Times \u2013 running to five pages.<\/p>\n According to her report, the pathology technician assisting Buckley, Emma Salcidos, was instructed to check the clothing Jim was wearing when he died.<\/p>\n Salcidos checked the left side pocket of Jim\u2019s raincoat. It was zipped and had to be cut open. Inside were nine forms of identification: a public service card, a UK driving licence, an Ulster Bank card, a credit union statement, a construction skills register card, a business card, a European health insurance card, a Northern Ireland libraries card, and a Dublin City Council library card. <\/p>\n Two documents carried his date of birth: 5\/11\/1980. One had a Dublin address, one a Belfast address. Almost all of them bore a name: James, Jim or J O\u2019Neill.<\/p>\n On the night they learned of the discovery of their son\u2019s remains from the PSNI, Paul and Ann O\u2019Neill spoke to the investigating garda over the phone. Following the call \u2013 and given the extraordinary circumstances of the case \u2013 they contacted \u00d3 Muirigh, who has worked on multiple highly sensitive cases related to the Troubles.<\/p>\n Five days after the PSNI contacted the O\u2019Neills, they visited the location in the Phoenix Park where their son\u2019s remains had been discovered.<\/p>\n Part of their complaint to Fiosr\u00fa relates to the Garda\u2019s handling of its interactions with them during their visit to Dublin, in which the family criticised \u201cthe distinct lack of professionalism, sensitivity and compassion\u201d shown to them.<\/p>\n The family have also raised questions about how the various forms of identification were missed in initial searches of the body in November 2023, why there was no Garda appeal, and why the discovery of unidentified remains was not published on the Garda website or circulated to media.<\/p>\n A Garda investigation report, dated December 24th, 2024, said a named garda \u201cconducted a cursory search of the outer garments of the body. No identifying documents were found.\u201d<\/p>\n Later, the same report says the same garda carried out a cursory search of the clothing, \u201cbut due to no proper personal protective equipment, it was decided to let the clothes be searched in a proper environment during the postmortem\u201d.<\/p>\n In a statement given by that garda \u2013 dated May 22nd, 2024, and included in the investigation report, he says he \u201csearched the pockets of the deceased\u201d but that he \u201cdid not find anything of evidential value in them\u201d. <\/p>\n [\u00a0The death of Joe Deacy: A five-year blur of grief and unanswered questionsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n The Garda report states the investigating garda called to the Dublin 1 address on the CV \u201con numerous occasions and at different times and there was no persons present at his address\u201d. It states that the garda also \u201cconducted enquiries\u201d in relation to the companies listed on the CV, but those \u201chad no information regarding a James O\u2019Neill working for them or on record as working for them\u201d.<\/p>\n The Garda report concluded that nothing was found at the scene in Phoenix Park to suggest that the death was suspicious.<\/p>\n However, as part of their complaint to Fiosr\u00fa, the family say the investigation \u201chas not adequately investigated other possibilities relating to the cause of their son\u2019s death\u201d, their written complaint states.<\/p>\n Jim\u2019s parents said they were \u201cnot in denial\u201d about the possibility that he may have taken his own life.<\/p>\n However, they are concerned about the long delay in learning their son had died, and the delay in them learning other information about the scene and postmortem.<\/p>\n The handling of the case has shaken the O\u2019Neill family\u2019s confidence in the investigation.<\/p>\n The O\u2019Neills only learned about the backpack found with their son\u2019s remains and the CV inside it bearing his name when they received the Garda investigation report in February 2025.<\/p>\n The report detailed another item found in the backpack: a newspaper dated October 27th, 2023, potentially indicating that Jim was still alive on that date \u2013 three weeks before his body was discovered, and shortly before what would have been his 43rd birthday, on November 5th.<\/p>\n When \u00d3 Muirigh received the postmortem report, he says he was so \u201castonished\u201d he queried it with the coroner\u2019s office.<\/p>\n \u201cI said: \u2018Are we missing pages?\u2019 The answer I received was \u2018No\u2019; that was the totality of it. Quite frankly, I\u2019ve dealt with many, many postmortems \u2013 probably in the hundreds. I\u2019d never seen anything quite like it,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n \u2018Nobody \u2013 it doesn\u2019t matter who it is \u2013 should be dumped in a morgue and left that length of time without every effort being made to try and identify this person\u2019<\/p>\n \u2014 \u00a0Paul O’Neill<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The O\u2019Neills enlisted another pathologist, Prof John Crane, the former state pathologist of Northern Ireland, who conducted another autopsy on May 12th, 2025. Given the state of decomposition in the body, Prof Crane was unable to ascertain the cause of death.<\/p>\n The family buried their son later that month. At his requiem Mass in St Agnes\u2019 Church on Anderstownstown Road in west Belfast, an old schoolfriend read a passage from the poem The Stolen Child by WB Yeats. He was interred afterwards in Milltown Cemetery on the Falls Road.<\/p>\n \u00d3 Muirigh describes the case as \u201cbaffling\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are many rudimentary steps that could have been taken to identify James, and weren\u2019t taken,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n The 13-month delay in the O\u2019Neill family being notified of Jim\u2019s death compounded their grief, he says. <\/p>\n In September, Ann and Paul wrote to Dublin TDs asking for assistance. <\/p>\n Fine Gael\u2019s Emer Currie<\/a> wrote to Minister for Justice Jim O\u2019Callaghan<\/a>. On October 21st, she forwarded his office\u2019s response to the O\u2019Neills.<\/p>\n O\u2019Callaghan\u2019s office extended sympathies to the family, but said he could not intervene given that they had lodged a complaint with Fiosr\u00fa and that the ombudsman was \u201cbest place to assist them in this regard\u201d.<\/p>\n In February, Dr Cullinane, the senior Dublin coroner, outlined the sequence of events from the discovery of Jim\u2019s remains in November 2023 to the eventual identification of his body in December 2024.<\/p>\n She noted how the remains were initially believed to be those of a James O\u2019Neill \u2013 the name attached to the initial postmortem examination report in November 2023 \u2013 but that following Garda inquiries, this identification \u201dcould not be confirmed and therefore it was no longer thought that the remains were those of a James O\u2019Neill\u201d.<\/p>\n It was not until after the forensic anthropologist\u2019s examination in December 2024 and the discovery of the various forms of identification that the remains were confirmed as those of Paul and Ann\u2019s son.<\/p>\n Responding to queries from The Irish Times, a spokesperson for the Dublin District\u2019s Coroner\u2019s Office said Mr O\u2019Neill\u2019s death was \u201cthe subject of an ongoing coroner\u2019s inquiry\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cAn inquest is yet to be heard and, in view of this, the coroner cannot comment on the case at this time,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n Last week, \u00d3 Muirigh was told the case will come before the coroner\u2019s court next month, but the family requested more time as they await a full report from Prof Crane, the pathologist.<\/p>\n In response to queries, the Garda said: \u201cAs this matter is being investigated by Fiosr\u00fa, An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na is not in a position to comment.\u201d<\/p>\n Fiosr\u00fa said it \u201cdoes not have any comment to make on this matter\u201d. <\/b><\/p>\n The Department of Justice said it did \u201cnot comment on individual cases and inquiries which are matters for An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na and the relevant coroner\u201d.<\/p>\n The O\u2019Neills don\u2019t want another family to go through what they have experienced over the past year.<\/p>\n \u201cIf this helps this not happening to anyone else, and it makes the guards actually review the practices and procedures to make sure it doesn\u2019t happen to anyone else, then we have achieved something. We may never even find out how Jim actually died,\u201d says Paul. <\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s why we\u2019re trying to push as much as we can,\u201d says Ann.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s just days where you just break down crying,\u201d Paul says.<\/p>\n \u201cNobody \u2013 it doesn\u2019t matter who it is \u2013 should be dumped in a morgue and left that length of time without every effort being made to try and identify this person to see if he had anybody that loved him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Belfast couple Ann and Paul O\u2019Neill had finished their Christmas shopping and were about to prepare an evening…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":460109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5131],"tags":[5229,210122,5643,1587,210124,210123,210125,1589,71247,90343,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-460108","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-phoenix","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-an-garda-siochana","10":"tag-arizona","11":"tag-az","12":"tag-emer-currie","13":"tag-fiosru","14":"tag-jim-ocallaghan","15":"tag-phoenix","16":"tag-phoenix-park","17":"tag-police-service-of-northern-ireland-psni","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-united-states-of-america","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115752178536983660","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Paul](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/HLPLG4ASX5FRDBIA3EK5SDNIGI.JPG\")
Paul and Ann O’Neill in their Belfast home.
\nPhotograph: Stephen Davison\/Pacemaker <\/p>\n\n
![\"Furze\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/DZPEBWZ5VVEV7JWOQBPKPTSUOU.png\")
Image: Google Earth <\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/FUGGBVR4WVHD7B35ZUOH26POE4.JPG\")
The O’Neills have raised questions about how the various forms of identification were missed in initial searches of their son’s body in November 2023, why there was no Garda appeal, and why the discovery of unidentified remains was not published on the Garda website or circulated to media. Photograph: Stephen Davison\/Pacemaker <\/p>\n\n
![\"Ann](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/MH5MK5X4JJCW7EAD54XHRYP3HE.JPG\")
Ann and Paul O\u2019Neill only learned about the backpack found with their son\u2019s remains and the CV inside it bearing his name when they received the Garda investigation report, in February 2025. Photograph: Stephen Davison\/Pacemaker <\/p>\n![\"Paul](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/LRB3W4ZQAJHT3GACM35ZJFNSJU.JPG\")
Paul and Ann O’Neill: ‘If this helps this not happening to anyone else, and it makes the guards actually review the practices and procedures to make sure it doesn\u2019t happen to anyone else, then we have achieved something.’ Photograph: Stephen Davison\/Pacemaker <\/p>\n