The son of a man whose body was found in a disused waste-tank has said his father’s partner was “shaking” and “upset” on the morning of his disappearance.
Robert Ryan Jnr said he felt “straight away something wasn’t right” when he met Mary Lowry (52) in the yard of her Co Tipperary farm.
“It appeared to me she just wanted me out of the yard as quick as she could get me out,” he said.
Mr Ryan Jnr was giving evidence in the Central Criminal Court trial of Patrick Quirke (50), of Breanshamore, Co Tipperary, who has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Bobby Ryan (52) between June 3rd, 2011 and April 2013.
Bobby Ryan went missing in June 2011 and his body was found in April 2013 in a tank on a farm at Fawnagown owned by Ms Lowry which was leased by the accused.
Mr Ryan Jnr told prosecuting counsel Michael Bowman SC that his father and mother split-up in about 2005 and he went to live with his father in Cashel.
He said his father - whose interests included music and dancing - had girlfriends but the relationship with Ms Lowry seemed more serious than the others.
He said Ms Lowry seemed “very jealous” and also noted that his father’s phone would be “hopping” with text messages which he seemed “pretty pissed off” about.
Problem
A week before the disappearance Mr Ryan Jnr noticed that there had been a problem between Ms Lowry and his father following a trip to Bundoran.
On the morning Bobby Ryan, disappeared Mr Ryan Jnr said he became concerned when he found his father had not been home and was not at the quarry where he worked. He knew he had spent the night with Ms Lowry and suspected he was planning to skip work to go to the beach as it was a nice day.
Mr Ryan Jnr went to Ms Lowry’s house and drove past some sheds to a gateway into the surrounding land. While he was parked there he noticed Ms Lowry in his rear view mirror and drove over to her.
He agreed with defence counsel Lorcan Staines SC that he previously told gardaí: “She appeared shaking to me, as if after having a car accident.”
Mr Ryan Jnr rolled down his window and, he told Mr Staines, Ms Lowry “mumbled” that she did not know where his father was and added: “We didn’t have a fight.”
He said he got a feeling straight away that “something wasn’t right about the way she was acting”. He thought she had been crying, was “visibly shaking and very upset”.
Leanne Hallissey, Mr Ryan Jnr’s partner, told Mr Bowman that she was watching TV with the deceased the night before he disappeared. He was receiving “an awful lot of texts” she said and at about 9pm he left for Ms Lowry’s saying: “I’d better go across and see what’s wrong with her.”
Michelle Ryan, Bobby Ryan’s daughter, described him as a “brilliant father and a great personality”. She was very close to him and following his split from her mother she became concerned for his mental health.
For several months after the break-up she would call him as often as every 20 minutes while he was at work to check up on him. After about four months she felt she was able to ease off on him a little and after about nine months she felt she could say, “there’s daddy again”.
Out of character
Ms Ryan said she became extremely concerned when her father failed to show up for work and then did not answer his phone on the day of his disappearance, which was out of character for him.
She said she started searching for him with her aunt, contacted gardaí and a local hospital. She told her aunt she had a “terrible feeling” that they were going to find her father’s van in the woods. Ms Ryan said she could not explain why she thought this.
Ms Ryan contacted Ms Lowry and met her in Tipperary Town. She got into Ms Lowry’s car and they drove towards Ms Lowry’s home.
Along the way she remembers Ms Lowry, who was upset, said: “I’m sorry, I’m so so sorry.”
As they drove the witness decided she wanted to go to Breansha Wood, also known as Kilshane Wood.
“I have no explanation as to why I thought of it.”
Ms Ryan left the witness stand briefly after becoming emotional and then she described arriving at the woods, where Ms Lowry pulled into the car park and they immediately saw her father’s Citroen Van.
She noticed that the van was unlocked with her father’s DJ equipment inside and had been parked in second or fourth gear with the seat was in an unfamiliar position.
Searching
Ms Ryan told gardaí that her father would not have left the van like this and he was not the last person to drive it. She spent the rest of that day and night searching the woods for her father.
She agreed with defence counsel Bernard Condon SC that her father often talked about Ms Lowry from the time he started seeing her. When her father asked Ms Ryan for her opinion of Ms Lowry, she said she told him to “P45 her” or give her a “dismissal”.
She also thought that her father’s relationship with Ms Lowry had finished on the Tuesday before he went missing following the trip to Bundoran.
Following her father’s disappearance she said she put up missing person posters all around Tipperary and agreed that she was upset when Ms Lowry attempted to remove one that had been erected in front of Ms Lowry’s gateway.
The trial continues.