‘They are not going to get away with it, in this life or the next’ – Penny Pickard

The wife of a man missing for more than 25 years has appealed to the people who abducted him to come forward with information, because, ultimately, they will not get away with it — in this life or the next.

A major search and excavation for the remains of Charles Brooke Pickard is underway in an area near the remote mountain pass of Ballaghisheen in south Kerry.

Mr Pickard was observed at White Strand, Castlecove, being bundled into his navy Ford Transit Van by five armed and masked men.

Supt Flor Murphy of Killarney said on Wednesday this "fresh investigation" into the 1991 abduction would continue .

Asked on Wednesday if she wished to appeal to anyone, Penny Pickard – who still lives in south Kerry – said she would appeal to "the people who did it".

“Ultimately, they are not going to get away with it – in this life or the next. Their best option is to come clean,” she said.

Crohan Pickard, the second youngest of the couple’s three surviving children (daughter Lisa was killed in a road traffic accident some years after her father’s abduction) was seven when his father disappeared.

“There’s so many ways to give information anonymously,” Mr Crohan said on Wednesday. “If they find a body that would give us an amazing sense of closure.”

“We’re expecting nothing, but hoping for the best. It’s important to have hope and not give up hope,” he said on Radio Kerry.

Gardaí­ have long believed the disappearance was linked to a dispute over drugs money and involved hired gunmen.

The dig for the remains – at a formerly forested site, approx 40 square metres, at Derrenageeha, Ballaghisheen (Bealach Oisín, Oisín’s Way) near where Brooke Pickard’s van was found burnt out three weeks after he disappeared – will take at least a week.