A body found in an Irish bog is that of IRA victim Brendan Megraw, it was confirmed on Monday night.
The organisation that searches for finding the bodies of the “disappeared” – people killed and then buried in secret, mostly by the IRA – said DNA tests showed that the remains belonged to the Belfast man, who was missing, presumed dead for more than three decades.
Megraw disappeared from his home on the Twinbrook estate in west Belfast in 1978. At the time, his partner was expecting their first child.
He was never seen again although it was believed that he had been abducted, shot dead and then secretly buried by the IRA because they claimed he was working as an agent for the security forces.
The Megraw family had been waiting for confirmation that a body recovered from a bog in County Meath was his.
In a statement on Monday, commissioners for the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims Remains, Frank Murray and Sir Ken Bloomfield, said: “The [ICLVR] has received the results of the DNA examination carried out on samples of the human remains recovered by the ICLVR team at Oristown, County Meath on the 1st October 2014.
“The results positively indicate that the remains are those of Brendan Megraw.
“Dr Brian Farrell, coroner for the city of Dublin, has accepted this as evidence of identification and will shortly authorise the release of the remains to the family.
“The thoughts of everyone in the commission are with the Megraw family at this difficult time.”
The commission was established to work with with the IRA and the Irish National Liberation Army to discover the whereabouts of up to two dozen people who were “disappeared” after being murdered during the Troubles.
