A file has been sent to the DPP following an “extensive investigation” into the discovery of the body of a male infant who washed up on the beach at White Strand, Cahersiveen, Co Kerry, on April 14th, 1984.
The infant was named Baby John by a local undertaker who arranged his burial at the Holy Cross Cemetery in Cahersiveen.
In March of 2023, a woman in her fifties and a man in his sixties were arrested in connection with the death of Baby John. The couple, who were held in Listowel and Castleisland Garda stations, were subsequently released without charge.
At the time of their arrest the Garda Press Office indicated they were being detained on suspicion of murder. The DPP will now decide whether anyone is to be charged in relation to the baby’s death. It is understood that DNA tests taken on samples from the couple proved conclusively they were the baby’s parents.
READ MORE
Baby John had been exhumed from Holy Cross Cemetery at first light on September 14th, 2021. His remains were taken to the morgue at University Hospital Kerry in Tralee, where samples were taken to build up a new DNA profile. His remains were reinterred later that day.
Meanwhile, a cold case review was carried out into the murder of Baby John. A postmortem examination by then state pathologist, John Harbison found the infant had been stabbed 28 times. Four of the stab wounds penetrated the heart of the infant. He also had a broken neck. A team of detectives from the Kerry garda division were handpicked in 2018 to take part in the review. They worked closely with their Dublin based colleagues from the Serious Crime Review Team.
In January 2018, at the start of the cold case review, gardaí issued an appeal to people who were living in the area where the body of the infant was found to come forward with any information they might have, which could solve the case. The review involved the interview of hundreds of people with 560 separate lines of inquiry being followed. Gardaí also received voluntary DNA samples from a large number of individuals in Cahersiveen and surrounding areas. Door-to-door enquiries were carried out in Valentia Island in 2018 as investigating officers teased out one of many lines of investigation. At the time, they were addressing the possibility the infant could have been placed in the sea on the island, with his body washing up in White Strand.
The initial investigation in 1984 caused considerable trauma to Joanne Hayes from Abbeydorney in Co Kerry who was wrongfully accused of murdering Baby John. She found herself at the centre of the Kerry Babies Tribunal in 1985.
Under questioning, Hayes told gardaí she had given birth to a baby boy who was stillborn or died days later and was buried on the family farm in Abbeydorney around the same time as the discovery of the infant male on the beach 80km away.
Gardaí later claimed the young woman had given birth to twins after they found the remains of her baby on the farm. But tests showed the two infants had different blood types.
Tests carried out in 2018 using DNA technology concluded that the baby found in Cahersiveen could not have been Hayes’s. Then taoiseach Leo Varadkar, former minister for justice Charlie Flanagan and An Garda Síochána apologised to Hayes.
Hayes and her siblings received a full State apology and damages in the High Court in 2020 for the treatment meted out to them at the time.
