THE family of a missing man who were unaware his body had been discovered 25 years ago have expressed disappointment his remains were not identified sooner.
Twenty-three year old Denis Walsh’s body was discovered on the shore at Inis Mor, off Galway Bay, on April 7th, 1996, almost four weeks after he was declared a missing person in Limerick.
Gardai informed Mr Walsh’s parents for the first time that last Friday, that the remains were belonging to their son.
It has emerged Mr Walsh’s body was buried in a communal grave at Bohermore Cemetery, Co Galway in 2014.
Gardai said the remains were taken to the mortuary at University Hospital Galway and bodily samples were taken and forwarded to the Forensic Science laboratory in Dublin in the hope the remains could be identified.
A post mortem was also conducted on the remains, the results of which have been sought by Mr Walsh’s family.
There are two Garda divisions involved in the case; the Limerick Division who were investigating a missing person’s case, and the Galway Division who were investigating the discovery of unidentified remains on Inis Mor.
Paul Walsh, a brother of the deceased, said they have unanswered questions about why his brother’s remains were not identified sooner. The family said they had yet to be told if dental checks were carried out on Denis’s remains.
Gardai said the remains were finally identified because of advances in DNA profiling methods.
Forensic Science Ireland has recently brought about resolutions to a number of outstanding and historic cases involving missing persons and unidentified remains, by employing new DNA testing.
However, Paul Walsh said: “We are very angry about the first few months, particularly; there was a report of a missing person in Limerick in March 1996, and in April, some 60 miles away, there was a body found. Both were males, both 6 ft etc. Some might say (the remains) might have been decomposed, but it was less than a month,” Mr Walsh said.
“My mother and father went to Galway on the 12th of May (1996), they remember the date, because it was the day of the National Hurling League Final in Limerick, and Dad remembers it because he was asked was he at the match. They went into garda stations in Galway, they had flyers all over Galway and North Clare.”
On May 13th, 1996, gardai attached to Mayorstone Park, Limerick made an appeal on the RTE Crimeline television programme for information on Denis Walsh’s whereabouts.
According to a report on the Garda website, a security manager working at the Seacat Ferry in Belfast who was watching the programme, contacted gardai and informed them he thought he recognised Denis Walsh from a photograph used in the televised appeal, as a man who had spent a day waiting for a ferry to the Isle of Man.
When the security manager checked the next day, a ticket in the name of ‘Walsh’ had been cashed in, unused, gardai stated.
Paul Wlash said: “Garda appealed for information in May 1996 and yet no one in Galway connected the dots. It’s like someone handed in a purse to gardai and they waited for someone to come and claim it, that’s how I feel. Look, none of this is going to bring Denis back, but it could have saved us an awful lot of pain.”
The Walsh family is seeking to exhume Denis’s remains from Bohermore Cemetery and lay them to rest in Limerick.
Today, in response to further questions about the matter, a garda spokeswoman confirmed “the body of Denis Walsh was retained at the Mortuary, University Hospital Galway until burial”.
“The burial of Denis Walsh, in a County Council graveyard, was arranged by University Hospital Galway following consultation with the Coroner.
The spokeswoman also confirmed that “Gardai do not suspect foul play in the death of Denis Walsh”.
“This case was recorded and investigated as a missing persons case, and the case is now closed. The family will be continue to be supported by the Family Liaison Officer,” she said.
Galway City and County Councils, the offices of local coroners, and University Hospital Galway, have been asked for comment.
