Specialist Dog Joins Lynskey Search

A specialist dog is to be used in the search for the body of Joe Lynskey, the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains (ICLVR) has confirmed.

Mr Lynskey, a former Cisterian monk, was abducted from west Belfast in August 1972 and murdered by the IRA.

He is one of Northern Ireland's 'Disappeared', one of 16 people who were abducted and secretly buried by republicans in the 1970s and 1980s.

To date, the remains of 10 of those people have been recovered.

In a statement released today (1 December), the ICLVR confirmed that a specialist dog is now to join the search to try and locate Mr Lynskey's remains.

A cadaver dog is trained to detect signs of human remains. It will work alongside geophysicists using ground penetrating radar to identify anomalies under the surface which may indicate a grave site.

Geoff Knupfer, lead forensic scientist and investigator with the ICLVR, said: "We will use every means at our disposal to try to narrow the search area until hopefully we get to a point where we can bring in the forensic archeologists to go beneath the surface. The cadaver dog is one of the resources we can use.

"As with of all of the Disappeared we are facing a huge task in this case going back over 40 years and dealing with a search area of around six hectares (15 acres ) in the first instance.

"We have to remember that it took four searches over nearly fifteen years before we found Brendan Megraw. We are just at the beginning of the process for Joe Lynskey."

Mr Knupfer added that, as the recover of Mr Megraw's remains showed, when accurate information is made available, the remains of the Disappeared can be found.

"We cannot overemphasise the importance of information coming to the ICLVR and once again, I can give the assurance of a cast-iron guarantee of complete anonymity to those who bring information to the commission," he concluded.

(JP/CD)