FAMILY MEMBERS said they were trying to stay hopeful that Dublin man Paul Nolan Miralles (36), who vanished without trace in Amsterdam after a late night out, will be found.
His Spanish-born mother, Rosario, from Clonsilla, Co Dublin, arrived in the Netherlands yesterday to join family members and friends for the search.
Dutch police said there were fears he may have been attacked, or that he might have accidentally fallen or ridden his bicycle into a canal.
His German girlfriend Elsa Wirrig (27) yesterday told how she and Mr Nolan Miralles were planning a break in Rome or Barcelona over Easter. Her boyfriend had been looking forward to the trip and was “in the best of form” before he went missing.
His sister Anne Ravanona, a global management training expert based in Paris, said his disappearance was all the more ominous since it was “completely out of character”.
The missing Irishman had moved to Amsterdam 10 years ago and worked in the city’s popular Hard Rock Café, where he was the best-known waiter, nicknamed “the Lord”.
He was last seen at 4am last Wednesday, April 13th, after he said goodnight to colleagues he was out with after work. He got his bicycle, which was parked near his workplace, and then set off to cycle the 4km 15-minute journey to his flat.
Ms Ravanona said her brother “was merrily drunk; that was unusual, as he did not normally drink. Now we fear the worst – as the days go by with no news – that something terrible has happened to him”.
Dutch police are keeping an open mind on the case but are not ruling out an attack or the possibility that Mr Nolan Miralles could have fallen from his bicycle into one of several canals on his way home.
His phone messages were released by the provider, but by law only the police can decode them. The family made an urgent plea in recent days for a decoding in an attempt to trace his last hours and contacts, but were told there was no police decoding officer available until after the weekend.
Desperate for news, the family then organised a publicity blitz in the Dutch media. They are circulating more than 1,000 posters and leaflets appealing to the public for help.
The Department of Foreign Affairs is providing consular assistance to the family through the Irish Embassy in The Hague.