Face of boy, 17, who was murdered and dismembered
A HARROWING search ended yesterday with the grim discovery of tragic teenager Keane Mulready’s dismembered head, in a burnt-out car in Dublin’s Drumcondra.
The Irish Daily Mail can also reveal that detectives believe they have found the location of the 17-year-old’s brutal dismemberment and murder – at a house in Rathmullen Park, in the teen’s native Drogheda, Co. Louth.
A Garda search was underway yesterday morning at the back of a house in Rathmullen Park. A second search was also underway at a house on Cement Road in Drogheda.
On Tuesday night, specialist and armed gardaí carried out eight searches linked to the gruesome killing, by targeting several ‘key players on both sides’ embroiled in the bloody feud.
Despite his tender age, it is understood that Mulready was considered a ‘player’ in organised criminality.
Last year, he was handed down a four-month prison sentence – which was deferred until this September – for the intimidation of a local family, as well as possession of cannabis for personal use and a road traffic offence.
The teen was working as a ‘gofer’ for both sides involved in the bloody gang warfare in Drogheda.
‘By working for both sides, ferrying drugs and other minor matters, it probably didn’t do him any favours,’ said a senior source.
The Mail can now reveal that the 17-year-old was under investigation for another separate case of serious intimidation. Sources said he ‘made threats’ against a Drogheda mother whose two sons owed €4,000 in a drugs debt.
The innocent woman eventually borrowed the cash from a local moneylender. Despite handing over the cash to Mulready, he ‘demanded more money’.
As a consequence, the teen stole her ‘beloved cat’ and murdered it, according to Garda intelligence.
One senior source explained: ‘Look, he is essentially a child and no-one deserves the end he got. But he was capable of serious crime and violence himself.
‘He abducted a poor woman’s cat and murdered it, despite her paying her sons’ drugs debt. It’s all very Love/Hate, what he did. I suppose his killers imitated Narcos when they caught up with him.’
On Monday night, the teen’s limbs were found dumped in a sports bag in Coolock, north Dublin. The grim discovery was made by children in the Moatview area.
A senior source told the Mail last night: ‘The victim’s head was found in a burnt out car in Drumcondra in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
‘His torso has not yet been recovered. The nature of his killings goes beyond a new low.
‘These criminal gangs are watching crime dramas like the Mexican show Narcos, and imitating the depravity by cutting people up.
Beheading and chopping up body parts, this case has sickened senior detectives to the core. Particularly given the victim’s age.’
The chief suspect in the gruesome case is a well-known Dublin criminal who was recently released from jail, and is ‘intrinsically involved’ in the Drogheda feud.
Sources say the teen was ‘collateral damage’ in the town’s bloody gang war. The 17-year-old’s limbs were recovered, wrapped in plastic, in a black sports bag, discarded on a curb at a housing estate.
Children saw the bag being dumped out of a car, which was ‘driving erratically’.
After opening the bag, the ‘distressed’ children alerted their mother, who immediately rang gardaí. The car the victim’s remains were dumped out of was seen ‘speeding and screeching around the estate’, locals later told gardaí.
A well-placed source said there was mutilation on the victim’s hands, possibly inflicted to disturb fingerprint identification.
Gardaí have intelligence that a senior criminal embroiled in the feud ordered his abduction and murder.
This criminal, who has links to Coolock but no longer lives in the area, is suspected of dumping the teen’s limbs to ‘send a message’ to his enemies that he is ‘not to be messed with’ following threats made against him by another major trafficker in the area.
The chief suspect in the brutal killing has close links to Richie Carberry, 39, who was shot dead in Bettystown, Co. Meath, in November as part of the feud.
One line of inquiry being pursued in the investigation is that the Drogheda teen was abducted and murdered because one of his associates was blamed for the murder of Carberry. The so-called Drogheda feud kicked off in July 2018, with a botched murder attempt on Owen Maguire which left him paralysed. Since then, there have been attacks on both sides of the feud.
In a statement yesterday, gardaí said ‘partial body remains’ had been located in the burnt-out vehicle in Drumcondra, Dublin.
The statement confirmed the State pathologist had been notified, and added that the assistance of Forensic Science Ireland will also be sought.
‘I suppose his killer imitated Narcos’ ‘Case has sickened senior detectives’