New appeal for information on missing man

THE mother of a man who has been missing for almost seven years yesterday renewed her appeal for information to help trace her son.

“Even if I had a single bone of his to place in a grave, it would be enough,” said 74-year-old widow Teresa Carroll.

Speaking from her home in Keyes Park, Southill, Limerick, she said: “I still hold out hope (of finding him alive), although next June he will be officially dead as he will be missing seven years.”

Matthew Carroll was aged 31 when he went missing on the evening of June 8, 1998. Gardaí suspect he may have been murdered and buried in a newly dug foundation of a building.

Mrs Carroll said the emotional torment she endured returned to her recently as she watched events unfold following the disappearance of Midleton schoolboy Robert Holohan.

“It brought it all back. I could have said to his lovely mother ‘I understand’. You have to have gone through something like that to understand,” she said.

Mrs Carroll, who has another son and grandchildren, said she would still appeal to anybody with information about Matthew to contact either her or a priest.

“Even if it is to give him a proper burial and have a grave to pray at. It isn’t too much for a mother to ask for.

“I have a little shrine to him in the kitchen and I light a candle there every day. I will light that candle every day until the day God takes me.”

On the day of his disappearance, Matthew had been out celebrating with a local soccer club.

He was last seen alive at Roxboro Shopping centre after leaving the Steering Wheel pub.

One garda theory is that he may have come across some information about a well-known criminal gang and this led to his murder.

Matthew had no criminal record and lived near the family home in Keyes Park.

At the time of his disappearance, Matthew, a single man, had his house up for sale. Gardaí say he had no financial reasons to leave the city.

Despite exhaustive garda searches no trace was ever found of him.