New appeal for information on missing Cathal
GARDAI HAVE issued a new appeal for information in the case of a Wexford man who disappeared in Cork 24 years ago, with the case recounted on Crimecall on Monday night.
23-year-old Cathal O’Brien, a former St Peter’s College student and college graduate, disappeared in April 1994 from Cork City, a few days after his friend, Englishman Kevin Ball, also went missing. When a third man, Patrick O’Driscoll, disappeared eight months later, Gardai began to look at links between the three missing men.
A major investigation was launched in February 1995, focusing on a house in Cork - No 9, Wellington Terrace - where all three had lived in bed sits before their disappearance. A huge search of forests and isolated areas around Cork City ensued and in July 1996, body parts were found in woodlands near Tivoli, which were later identified to be those of Mr O’Driscoll.
It is believed that both Mr O’Brien and Mr Ball were murdered in the house that they shared, which became known as the ‘House of Horrors’, but their bodies have never been found.
A man arrested and tried for the murder of Patrick O’Driscoll, Fred Flannery, committed suicide in May 2003. He had stood trial for murder but the trial collapsed and the court ruled that he was never to be retried.
Mr O’Brien was one of eight children. He had been living in Cork for five months at the time of his disappearance and had been involved in fundraising for the Simon centre.
His family had last seen him when he returned home for a week at Easter time in 1994.
His father Seamus, at the time, was the school principal in Castlebridge N.S.
Gardai renewed their appeal for information in the hope that the families of the missing men would finally get some answers.