The RUC yesterday began excavating the ground floors and back gardens of two houses in west Belfast as part of a search for two boys who disappeared from their homes in November 1974.
Simultaneously, a team of detectives began questioning a 69year-old inmate of Maghaberry Prison in Co Antrim about the disappearances. The man, who is serving an eight-year sentence for sexually assaulting a child, lived in the area now being searched at the time the boys disappeared.
The senior RUC detective in charge of the investigation emphasised that the current residents of the houses where the search is being carried out, Nos 50 and 56 Rodney Drive, were not under suspicion. The police asked the residents to move out for the duration of the search, which may take up to a week.
A number of police vehicles blocked the narrow street yesterday as detectives began their search. The police wrote to all the residents of the Rodney Drive area informing them of the reasons for the search and apologising for the inconvenience.
The disappearance of the two boys has remained a mystery for many years. However, in the late 1990s the RUC uncovered evidence connecting one of the boys with one of the houses now being searched. John Rodgers (13) lived at No 41 Rodney Drive with his adoptive parents, Alice and Jimmy Rodgers. Mrs Rodgers, whose husband died in 1987, is now infirm.
John Rodgers left home on the morning of November 26th, 1974, to catch a bus to St Aloysius's special needs school in north Belfast in the company of his friend, Thomas Spence (11), who lived a short distance away in Rockdale Street, off the Falls Road. They were never seen again.
The two boys, who had learning difficulties, had previously run away from school for a day trip to Bangor, Co Down, and there was speculation locally at the time that they could have done so again. One of the popular local theories was that they had joined a circus.
Last year, on the 26th anniversary of the disappearances, Mrs Alice Rodgers renewed her appeal for information about her son. The RUC issued leaflets about the boys and produced a computer-generated image to indicate what they might look like now if they were still alive. The police placed details of the two boys on Internet databases and made inquiries in the Republic, Britain and abroad.
The disappearances occurred during one of the bloodiest years in the North. The Rodney Drive area is Catholic and close to the loyalist Village area. The streets around Rodney Drive were frequently the target of loyalist assassination gangs, who abducted and murdered young Catholics. There was a belief among local people that the two boys had been abducted and murdered by loyalists.
Although they are now believed to have been killed around the time of their disappearance, it should be possible to secure DNA evidence from any remains which may be recovered.