Gardaí were last night questioning a man on suspicion of the murder of Mike Gaine, who vanished from his Co Kerry farm in March.
The arrest came after the investigation progressed rapidly over the weekend following the discovery of human remains in slurry spread across Mr Gaine’s farm just outside Kenmare.
The arrested man (50s), who knew Mr Gaine (56), had been spoken to by gardaí informally as part of the initial missing person’s inquiry and again after the case was upgraded to a homicide investigation last month. The man had permitted gardaí to visit his accommodation and examine it, negating the need for a search warrant at that time.
In a statement on Sunday, the Garda said the male is being detained under the provisions of section four of the Criminal Justice Act 1984. It added that members of the force were continuing to “carry out searches and technical examinations” around Mr Gaine’s farmyard and nearby fields.
The suspect’s arrest was the first time anyone has been detained by gardaí since the investigation began. The statement confirming his arrest was also the first time gardaí referred to the matter as potential murder.
However, Garda sources described the investigation as “complex” and “painstaking”. While the discovery of remains and the arrest of a suspect in murder cases often results in criminal charges very quickly, sources said the process might take some time in this case.
Gardaí in Kerry, who are being assisted by the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, the force’s serious crimes squad, have 24 hours to question the suspect before he must be either charged or released.
Gardaí suspect Mr Gaine, a popular sheep farmer well known locally, was murdered during a personal dispute by a man known to him.
Though detectives must wait for the results of DNA testing on the remains discovered last Friday, they believe they are those of Mr Gaine. Detectives suspect his body was dismembered and dumped in his slurry tank. More remains were discovered during searches on Sunday.
Gardaí are working on the theory Mr Gaine was murdered on March 21st – the day he was last seen buying phone credit in Kenmare.
While the slurry tank was searched and drained in the days after Mr Gaine vanished, when the inquiry was still a missing person’s case, nothing of evidential value was found. It was unclear if the remains were in the tank from the time of the killing or if they were placed there later, perhaps after it was drained.
The body parts were discovered by chance last Friday when people working the land took slurry from the tank.
The alarm was raised immediately and gardaí flooded the area, locking down the farmyard, fields, slurry tank and other machinery as part of a large crime scene.
Gardaí placed human remains in plastic evidence bags on Sunday, when a hearse was also seen leaving. A postmortem was due to take place at University Hospital Kerry, Tralee, though it was not immediately clear if a cause of death would be established due to the condition of the remains.
