Gardaí investigating the disappearance and murder of missing boy Kyran Durnin have arrested a woman in her 50s.
He was reported missing from his home in Drogheda, Co Louth, in August 2024.
The woman is the third person to be held during the investigation into Kyran’s presumed death and a search is being carried out at a home in Drogheda.
The last confirmed sighting of Kyran, then aged six, was in May 2022 when his mother reported him ill with Covid-19. He never finished the year in St Nicholas’ Monastery National School on Philip Street in Dundalk.
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However, staff there had been told he was planning to go to school in Northern Ireland the following year, meaning when he did not return in September it did not arouse suspicion.
The last known images of him were taken in June 2022, around the time that, gardaí believe, he was killed and his remains were disposed of to conceal what had happened.
The arrested woman is being detained at a Garda station in the eastern region under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act 1984.
Kyran was reported missing along with his mother Dayla Durnin (24) by his grandmother Rhonda Byrne Tyson in August 2024.
Byrne Tyson said that Dayla and her three children had stayed with her in her home in Hand Street, Drogheda, but had gone the following morning. Dayla was subsequently located in the UK but Kyran was not found.
In December 2024, a man and a woman were arrested for questioning on suspicion of Kyran’s murder but were released without charge.
The Irish Times reported late last year that the Garda was preparing for a third arrest in the investigation. A person with crucial information about what happened to the child and about his life in the period before he vanished was said to be of interest to gardaí.
Sources said gardaí continued to believe that Kyran was dead and the whereabouts of his body were known to individuals who had not revealed that information.
A review into the case has been done by the National Review Panel, which investigates serious incidents including the deaths of children known to the child protection system.
It will not be published following the advice of the Attorney General amid concerns it could “prejudice any potential or future prosecutions”, Minister for Children Norma Foley said in December.
Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan told reporters on Monday that was “pleased to see that there has been a development”.
He added: “Obviously, there are people out there who have information in respect of this crime, and that information should be brought to the attention of the Garda Síochána.
“The only mechanism in order that justice can be served in Ireland is if the gardaí investigating have sufficient information to pass on to the DPP [Director of Public Prosecutions] for prosecution, and then our courts deal with the matter.
“So anyone who has information in respect of Kyran Durnin needs to give that information to the Garda Síochána.”
Gardaí said investigations are continuing.
