TEN YEARS after the IRA handed over a list of sites where it said gardaí would find the remains of the so-called Disappeared, a new site has been identified.
It is in Co Louth, close to the Border, and said to be the burial place of Gerry Evans (24) from Crossmaglen, who was also not on the original list.
His unmarked grave is said to be somewhere in bogland off an isolated boreen 6km from the border near Hackballscross.
The Commission for the Location of Victims Remains said yesterday it hoped to begin an examination of the site “as soon as is practicable”.
Since the IRA gave a list of locations of the Disappeared in 1999, searches by teams of gardaí, and more recently by specialised forensic teams, uncovered only some of the burial places.
This new site is off the Cortial road, 10km west of Dundalk and 13km from Crossmaglen.
The bog is accessed by a narrow country lane; when Mr Evans was abducted and murdered in 1979, it would have been even more isolated.
Earlier this year the location was pointed out to a newspaper journalist by a man who said he was involved in the killing. The same information was given to the commission.
Mr Evans was abducted as he hitch-hiked home from a dance in Castleblayney, Co Monaghan.
A spokesman for the Commission for the Location of Victims Remains said the site would have to be drained before a search could begin.
Meanwhile, the commission is continuing to examine a site near Wilkinstown, Co Meath, where the IRA says it buried Kevin McKee and Séamus Wright, both 25 and from Belfast, in 1972. The spokesman said more than one site could be examined at the same time. “It is not unusual for different teams to work on different locations at the same time.”
Anyone with information on the Disappeared can call 00800 555 85500 from either side of the Border.