Podcast Corner: Digging deep into the case of a missing Icelander in Ireland 

Where Is Jón is a fascinating tale from RTÉ's Documentary on One team

Members of Jón Jónsson family, sister Anna and brother David appeal for information. Picture: Gareth Chaney/Collins

There’s a shocking claim made during the third episode of Where Is Jón, the latest series from the RTÉ Documentary on One team. Iceland’s chief superintendent says: “In this we need to be of course very diplomatic… In Iceland we have very short distance to decision making. We can make quite a big decision very quickly. Ireland is small, it’s more bureaucratic, they are not as quick. We maybe would have acted differently quicker than they.” 

 He’s talking about the Garda investigation into the disappearance of Icelander Jón Jónsson in Dublin in February 2019. The Garda’s first missing persons alert was not made until more than 48 hours after Jónsson had gone missing from the Bonnington Hotel, formerly the Regency - the location of a gangland shooting in 2016 - where he was attending a poker tournament. Those 48 hours, as we hear repeatedly during the series, are crucial in such a search.