Garda in Thailand in effort to identify tsunami victims

A SENIOR garda will arrive in Thailand today to review ongoing efforts to locate the bodies of the two remaining unidentified Irish tsunami victims.

Lucy Coyle and Michael Murphy disappeared in the 12-foot tidal wave that devastated pockets of southern Thailand and the wider Indian Ocean area on St Stephen’s Day.

Detective Superintendent John O’Driscoll, the Irish liaison officer on these two cases, will visit the Disaster Victim Identification (DVI Centre) at Phuket Island with the Irish Ambassador to Thailand and Malaysia, Dan Mullhall.

Det Supt O’Driscoll’s visit is part of a two-month review and underlines the Irish embassy and Goverment’s determination to return the bodies to the Coyle and Murphy families.

The DVI centre at Ban Mai Khao is holding the remains of thousands of unknown victims.

Fingerprints, dental records and DNA are being tested to see if they correspond with family DNA and the personal details of victims such as height, weight and ethnicity.

This process is known as the ‘DVI protocol’ and was developed by Interpol.

“It is an elaborate operation which takes time and will continue until all matches are made. We are just waiting and hoping,” and embassy source last night said.

Numerous post mortems have been carried out on the bodies at the DVI centre and data on missing persons has been fed into a central computer system.

Det Supt O’Driscoll, National Support Services Evaluation Team, spent time in Thailand in the immediate aftermath of the tsunami.

The bodies of Dubliner Eilis Finnegan and Conor Keightley from Tyrone were discovered in the weeks following the disaster but the Coyle and Keightley families are still waiting for closure.

Lucy Coyle, 28, from Killiney, Dublin, was last seen on Phi-Phi Island off the Thai Coast.

Michael Murphy, 23, from Wexford, was staying at Khao-Lak and was last heard from when he texted family on Christmas Day.