Family of missing man renews appeal for assistance

The family of missing man Trevor Deely will today launch a new poster campaign in an effort to find out what happened to him.

It will be seven years on Saturday since the then 22-year-old was last seen in Dublin. CCTV footage shows him crossing Baggot Street bridge and heading in the direction of Haddington Road at 4.15am on December 8th, 2000.

But despite a major Garda investigation and an unprecedented publicity campaign by family and friends, his disappearance is still a mystery.

It is six years since the last poster campaign took place. At 3pm today, family and friends will gather on Baggot Street to distribute posters along the route where Trevor was last seen. On Friday night, flyers will be distributed in the area and a prayer service will be held in his home town of Naas.

Trevor's father, Michael Deely, said the time was right to focus on the case again because younger people might not be aware of it. "We want to jog people's memories again and hopefully there's someone out there that has some vital piece of information that will crack the thing for us," he said. "The guards say that every time there's something done new people contact them."

Trevor, a bank worker, had been at an office Christmas party on the night he disappeared. He stopped off at his workplace on the way home, chatted with a colleague on a night shift, had coffee in the canteen and then collected an umbrella before heading in the direction of Serpentine Avenue where he lived.

It was a stormy night and there was a taxi strike when Trevor disappeared, so many people were walking. Mr Deely rejected the suggestion that Trevor could have been blown into the river. "What evidence do we have for it?" he said. "He was six foot one or two in height so I would say it's most unlikely."

Mr Deely said the CCTV showed Trevor jumping to one side to avoid a puddle and said this did not indicate a man who would drunkenly fall into a river.

"Why go into scenarios at all when you don't know? It's certainly easier for the family if there's nothing sinister involved. Just treat it as a missing person and just wait and look forward to his safe return. Some people would say that's naive in the circumstances, but if you have nothing to go on, then go on the positive," Mr Deely said.

While he praised the Garda handling of the case, Mr Deely repeated his call for a specialised missing person's unit.

Any information about Trevor Deely's disappearance should be passed to Pearse Street Garda station at 01-6669000 or any Garda station.