TISSUE TAKEN from a body washed up on a beach is to be analysed in an effort to unlock a 28-year-old mystery.
It follows the opening of an inquest in Co Donegal yesterday to discover if the body is that of Noel McGlynn of Ballaghderg, Letterkenny. Mr McGlynn went missing on June 17th, 1983, aged 26 and was never seen again.
Nine days later a body was found on a Dunfanaghy beach. The body was buried in an unmarked grave at the local Holycross Graveyard.
Now the brother of the missing man believes it was his body which was washed up.
James McGlynn said he was 90 per cent sure the body is that of his brother whom he last saw at the family home having tea and then tidying his room. He said Noel had been admitted to St Conal’s Psychiatric Hospital in Letterkenny a short time earlier and was suffering from depression.
Pathologist David Barry carried out a postmortem on the body the day after it was washed up. He said there was no sign of a violent death but there was no way of identifying a cause of death.
He put the age of the body as between 40 and 50 years, of medium build and balding.
Although this did not completely tally with Mr McGynn’s appearance, Dr Barry said he could not rule out that it was not him.
Coroner John Cannon said he was reluctant to order an exhumation of the unidentified body. However, he said he was satisfied tissue samples taken from the unidentified body could be matched with saliva samples taken from James McGlynn by gardaí.
He adjourned the case until January 17th.