Missing Trevor Deely’s sister has blasted “outrageous” online speculation surrounding her brother’s disappearance as she vowed to never give up looking for her brother.
IT worker Trevor, 22, from Naas, Co Kildare, was last seen on CCTV walking along Haddington Road in Dublin 4 in the early hours of December 8, 2000, after a work Christmas party.
Just days after the 19th anniversary of Trevor vanishing without trace, Michele Deely told Pat Kenny’s Newstalk show that theories being posited online needed to “come down several notches”.
“You’d want to read what people write online. It’s outrageous,” she said. “There’s a lot of speculation around Trevor going to Alaska - that was the trip of a lifetime for him…
”He came home a couple of weeks prior to him going missing - it has nothing to do with anything."
She continued: “There’s lots of theories: Trevor went to Alaska, got caught up in something and somebody followed him back and did something to him.
“He was a simple guy, - he was an entry level IT worker. And [yet] people have him caught up in this banking scam… [or] that he was involved in some crazy scheme and that’s why he was taken. It’s crazy."
Michele revealed that she had contacted social media companies in relation to the speculation, but had been fobbed off.
Telling the Pat Kenny Show that there had been "hundreds if not thousands" of potential sightings over the years, she added: "I battle a lot to get the right facts out there - but it’s actually really difficult."
And Michele revealed that despite trying to come up with new ways to find him, her family keep “coming up blank”.
She added: “We’ve done a huge amount of work, but all that work, in a way, is coming back to haunt us - it’s really becoming a very difficult item for the family when we think about speculation.”
Gardai issued a fresh appeal for information into the bank worker’ disappearance at the weekend, telling the public that even the smallest bit of information could help to uncover what happened to the young man.
And Michele vowed that her family would never give up trying to find him.
She said: “Trevor would never give up on us - that’s our commitment. As difficult as it is to deal with the speculation… we won’t give up.
“We have to keep fighting through it until we find him.”
Gardai at Pearse Street Garda station on Saturday appealed to the public to come forward with any information that could assist the investigation into Trevor's disappearance.
Contact Pearse Street Garda station on 01-666-9000, the Garda Confidential Line at 1800-666-111 or Crimestoppers on 1800-250-025.
