'IRA victim' found days after search teams call off their bogland hunt

TEAMS searching for the body of a man believed to have been shot and buried 30 years ago by the IRA appeared to have found him only days after giving up the hunt.
By The Newsroom
Published 15th Oct 2010, 19:28 BST
Updated 15th Oct 2010, 20:25 BST

Relatives of 24-year-old Gerry Evans now face an agonising wait for tests to confirm the identity of human remains found in bogland in Co Louth close to the Irish border.

The missing man, last seen in 1979 hitch-hiking outside Castleblaney in Co Monaghan, is one of 16 people known as the Disappeared who were killed and secretly buried by republican paramilitaries during the Troubles. So far the remains of seven victims have been recovered.

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Just over two weeks ago the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains (ICLVR) said its 16-month dig in the Carrickrobin area in search of Gerry Evans’s remains had ended without success.

But after yesterday’s announcement, his brother Noel Evans said his family hoped their long wait would soon be at an end.

The family lived in Crossmaglen, south Armagh, just north of the border in Northern Ireland, close to another Disappeared victim, Charlie Armstrong. His remains were recently buried after being discovered in peat bogland in Co Monaghan last July following work by University of Bradford forensic archaeologists.

Related topics:IRA