In November last year Mrs Alice Rodgers, adoptive mother of John Rodgers, the 13-year-old boy who disappeared almost 27 years ago with his friend Thomas Spence, renewed her public appeals for information about her missing son on the anniversary of the disappearances.
The Belfast nationalist newspaper, the Irish News, carried a picture of Mrs Rodgers, along with her recollections of the events of 1974.
Mrs Rodgers came from the fishing village of Kilkeel, Co Down, and was known to people in Rodney Drive area as "Kilkeel Alice".
A local woman, who did not wish to be named, said Mrs Rodgers and her husband, Jimmy, were popular with local people.
The Rodgers's house is diagonally across from the two houses at 50 and 56 Rodney Drive where the police yesterday began clearing ground in the back yards. The Rodgers family lived in No 41.
On the day of the disappearance, John should have walked up the Donegall Road and crossed the Falls Road to meet his friend, Thomas Spence (11).
They then should have caught a bus which would take them to St Aloysius's school for children with learning difficulties on Somerton Road, in the north of the city. But the boys never arrived.
Asked about the houses where the searches were taking place yesterday, the woman's mood darkened and she spoke of a man who had lived in the area and is now serving a lengthy jail sentence for sexual abuse of a young girl.
The man's family had left him during the 1970s and 1980s amid local concern about his activities.
No one, however, had ever connected him with the disappearance of the two boys. He was convicted of a serious sexual offence against a child in 1997 and sentenced to eight years' imprisonment.
The two houses being searched have since been occupied by new residents who are not under any suspicion.
The man, now in his late 60s, is understood to have spoken to detectives recently, from prison.
At the weekend, the entire neighbourhood received a three-page letter from the local District Command Unit police commander, Chief Supt Bob McCargo, informing them that his officers were again investigating the disappearances.
"As a result of our inquiries it is now necessary to carry out detailed searches of 50 Rodney Drive and 56 Rodney Drive," the letter said.
"The decision to carry out these searches has not been taken lightly as it is acknowledged that the searching of the houses is likely to cause distress, anxiety and disruption to the present residents and the wider community.
"I am sure you will understand that it is necessary for the family of the missing boys and the community for us to do everything we can to bring this investigation to a conclusion. I must emphasise that the present occupants of the two houses are in no way connected with our inquiry."
Chief Supt McCargo estimated it would take between five and six days to complete the search, and said the police would be present 24 hours a day. His letter apologised for any inconvenience.
The disappearances of the boys occurred during one of the most vicious periods of sectarian violence in the city. Some 322 people were killed as a result of the violence in that year.
There was a residual belief that the two boys, from a nationalist area, had been abducted by loyalists.
Child-killing is a rare occurrence in the North. Some 20 have been killed in the past decade.
One case which remains the cause of continued speculation and rumour in Belfast is that of Brian McDermott, of Well Street in the Woodstock area of Belfast, who disappeared at 10 years of age.
Brian vanished in the summer of 1973 while playing football in Ormeau Park. His burned and dismembered body was found seven days later in a sack pulled from the Lagan river near the Ormeau Bridge.
Loyalist sources from east Belfast have told The Irish Times that a fringe paramilitary figure was questioned about the murder of Brian McDermott. The man was later questioned by police but was able to provide an alibi from local women.
However, the loyalists say the women were not aware that the man was a suspect in a child killing, but believed he was suspected of a terrorist offence. The man remains at large and is still involved in a fringe loyalist terrorist group.
There is also continued speculation about the murder of nine-year-old Jennifer Cardy, who was abducted near her home in August 1981 at Ballinderry, Co Antrim.
There was a massive search, and six days later her body was discovered by fishermen 14 miles away in an old millrace outside Hillsborough.
In 1996 the RUC investigated a possible link between Jennifer's murder and the movements of the convicted British child-killer, Robert Black. It is believed Black, a van-driver, had made a trip to Belfast around the time of Jennifer's murder but he denied the killing.
Black was convicted and sentenced to at least 35 years' imprisonment for the abduction, torture and murder of three children in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Another case that has remained unsolved is that of Darren Fawns, a 13-year-old who was abducted and beaten to death in the grounds of Massereene Golf Club near Antrim town on the shores of Lough Neagh in August 1995.
The RUC is using radar equipment which detects disturbance in soil and which was used during investigations into the mass murderer Fred West in Bristol.
Gardai used similar equipment in 1995 during the search for the remains of Patricia McGauley (43) who was killed on September 12th, 1991, and Mary Cummins (36) who was killed on July 23rd, 1992 in west Dublin.
The same equipment was used again during searches for the 12 victims of IRA assassinations in the 1970s who were secretly buried and who became known as the "disappeared". Only three of the bodies were recovered.