New search underway for bog bodies

A new search for 'The Disappeared" - two young Belfast men murdered by the IRA and believed to have been buried in County Meath - is underway this week after the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims" Remains decided on a fresh initiative in the long campaign to recover the bodies. Commission officials, which include Detective Superintendent Geoff Knupfer, who worked on the infamous Moors Murders investigation in England; Detective Inspector Jon Hill, who has worked with the Metropolitan Police in London, and Detective Inspector Jody Crowe of the Gardai, have embarked on the search at Coghalstown bog, Wilkinstown, where two West Belfast 25-year-olds, Seamus Wright and Kevin McKee, are believed by local people to have been secretly buried in 1972. They both disappeared from their homes and were never seen again. This week, the first signs of the renewed search for the two bodies were evident at Coghalstown, just off the Ladyrath-Rathkenny Road at Wilkinstown. A field in a bog laneway just off the road has been pegged out with markers and awaits further examination. Sources close to the investigation say that the team"s intention is to clear large areas along the lane of trees and scrub and that a geophysical examination of the entire area, using ground-probing radar, will then take place. This technology was not available during previous searches at Coghalstown and Oristown 10 years ago. The investigation is only in its early searches and team members may be present on the site for some weeks. The Coghalstown site has already been investigated when Gardai organised digs at Wilkinstown - and at Oristown where the body of Brendan McGraw, another of 'The Disappeared" is believed to have been buried. The two searches ended in May 2000 with no indication that the bodies were buried there. Kells Gardai had been overseeing the excavation of a cutaway at Emlagh Bog, four miles from the town, in the search for Brendan McGraw. The searches for Mr McGraw, and the other two men, followed what is believed to have been the securing of fresh information by the independent commission. Digging had also taken place at Templetown Beach in Co Louth where the body of Jean McConville, also murdered by the IRA, was believed to have been buried. The search was unsuccessful on that occasion but her body was eventually located in 2003 after an agonising wait by her family. As the new search at Coghalstown got underway this week, local peace commissioner Brendan Markey said that most people in the community, and beyond, were hoping that the new search might reveal the location of the remains of Seamus Wright and Kevin McKee. 'We are all praying for a good result this time, especially for the sake of the peace of mind of the families, but we don"t want to raise our hopes too high. People here are convinced that the bodies of these two men lie here. We have nothing but praise for the work of the commission and the officers who are carrying out this very valuable work. It is time for closure,' he said. In January of this year, the Oristown-Kilberry parish bulletin carried an appeal for information on 'The Disappeared". It said: 'Families of the 'Disappeared" continue to appeal to anyone with information who knows where their loved ones are buried to contact the Independent Commission set up to find the remains. It is believed that the remains of two victims of the Troubles in Northern Ireland lie buried in Oristown bog. The exact location, however, has never been determined. If you have any information on this matter, it will be treated in the strictest confidence by the Commission, safe in the knowledge that this can only be used to recover the remains of a loved one. The commission"s confidential telephone number is 00800 555 85500, or one can write to ICLVR, PO Box 10827, Dublin 2.' Mr Markey said it was hoped the appeal would result in some fresh information. 'If anyone has the slightest scrap of information, I would ask them to give it confidentially. We don"t want to know what was done or how it was done in the past. All we want to do is look to the future and find closure for these grieving families,' he added.