COPS TOOK TWO YEARS TO FIND BOBBY’S BODY Court told gardai searched farm but uncovered nothing
COPS searched a farm for missing DJ Bobby Ryan days after he vanished – but his body wasn’t found there until two years later, a court has heard.
Officers went through fields, tanks, ditches and hedges but uncovered nothing, a Garda sergeant told the murder trial of Patrick Quirke, 50.
He has pleaded not guilty to killing Mr Ryan, a part-time DJ known as Mr Moonlight, on a date between June 3, 2011, and April 2013.
Mr Quirke is on trial at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin.
Prosecutors claim he murdered his “love rival” to rekindle an earlier affair with Mr Ryan’s girlfriend Mary Lowry.
The deceased went missing in June 2011 and his body was found in April 2013 in a disused waste water tank on a farm at Fawnagowan, Co Tipperary, owned by Ms Lowry and farmed by Mr Quirke.
Sergeant Cathal Godfrey yesterday told prosecution counsel David Humphries BL he was in charge of a search of the land.
He knew Ms Lowry had given a statement to gardai saying Mr Ryan stayed at her home the night before he disappeared and that he left about 6.30am.
On June 7, 2011, Sgt Godfrey and several gardai combed the area for anything that might assist in what was at that time a missing person inquiry.
He said they found “nothing of evidential value”.
They did find a slurry tank but he told the court there was not enough material in it to hide a body. Frequent heavy rain interrupted the search, he added.
Each of the gardai giving evidence told defence counsel Lorcan Staines SC they did not take photographs of what they saw during the search.
The trial continues in front of Justice Eileen Creedon and a jury of six men and six women.