Family claims gang members killed missing couple

A couple who have been missing since the spring were murdered because gangland criminals feared they could implicate them in a gun murder, the father of the missing man has said.

Willie Maughan (34) and Anastasija Varslavane (21) were last seen at their Co Meath home in April.

Gardaí have carried out extensive searches in Meath and north Co Dublin with a view to finding their remains.

Informed sources said Mr Maughan was associated with a gangland criminal based in north Co Dublin believed to be responsible for the gun murder of Benny Whitehouse.

The 36-year-old was shot on Clonard Street in Balbriggan on September 25th, 2014, shortly after dropping his six-year-old daughter to a nearby national school.

His wife was wounded in the same attack, which was believed to be linked to an ongoing feud in the area.

Gardaí believe Mr Maughan knew the killers and that those men feared he could implicate them in the Whitehouse murder and so abducted and murdered him before concealing his body.

Attacked

The investigating team is working on the theory Ms Varslavane, from Latvia, was murdered with her boyfriend because she was with him when he was attacked.

They had been living in a mobile home in Gormanston, Co Meath, but were due to move in with Mr Maughan’s parents in Dublin.

Just before 2.30pm on the day they were last seen alive, Mr Maughan called his mother by phone and was informed she was driving and would reach them within around 30 minutes.

However, when she arrived the couple were gone and there have been no sightings in the intervening seven months.

Just before 3pm on the day they disappeared, Ms Varslavane apparently rang the Maughans pleading for help. However, her calls were answered by her partner’s young brother who has special needs and did not understand her.

“We’re in bits, we really are,” the missing man’s father, Joe Maughan, told The Irish Times ahead of a fresh public appeal for informationtoday.“At this stage I don’t know what to even say to people; we’re devastated.”

Mr Maughan said he was convinced his son and Ms Varslavane knew who killed Mr Whitehouse and were murdered by the same people.

“William knew about it and these criminals get paranoid from the amount of cocaine they are taking; they think people are going to say things about them,” he said.