Monaghan remains to be examined

HUMAN REMAINS, thought to be those of Charlie Armstrong who disappeared from Co Antrim in 1981, are now in Dublin for forensic examination.

Discovered in a bog in Co Monaghan, the partial remains were removed on Saturday morning and brought to the State Pathologist’s office, in Marino, north Dublin.

Tissue samples from them will be sent to a laboratory in England, where they will be tested against a DNA database containing the genetic codes of all the families of the “disappeared” – people who went missing during the Troubles prior to 1998.

It could take up to four weeks before identification is complete, but Frank Murray, commissioner with the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains, said he was “cautiously optimistic” they have found Mr Armstrong’s remains.

The remains were found close to the spot where the bodies of two other “disappeared”, Brian McKinney and John McClory, were discovered in 1999.

Father-of-five Mr Armstrong vanished from Crossmaglen on Sunday, August 16th, 1981. His car was later discovered in a car park beside the Adelphi cinema in Dundalk. There was no evidence of a struggle. He was not known to have any political enemies in republican south Armagh.

Many people believe the IRA tried to hijack his car and that he resisted, which resulted in his murder. Others in the Crossmaglen area believe he saw or discovered something which may have compromised him.

Meanwhile, friends and family of another of the disappeared, 24-year-old Gerard Evans, are hopeful a renewed bid will be made this week to find him.

Also from Crossmaglen, Mr Evans vanished in March 1979 after he left the Co Monaghan border town of Castleblayney, where he was socialising, to hitch a lift to his home just across the border.

Anonymous letters, together with roughly-drawn maps, were sent some time ago to relatives, allegedly pinpointing where Mr Evans’s body was buried, but searches there proved unsuccessful.

Yesterday, close friends of the Evans’s family said they believed that in view of the developments in the area, Mr Evans’s body would “turn up soon”.

“It is sincerely hoped this will happen soon, to end the suffering and heartbreak that another family has undergone for the last 30 years in the border area,” they said.