Father of murdered man seeks help

The father of a murdered homeless man, whose remains were found in a skip last year, has appealed for fresh information from the public to bring those responsible to justice.

Noel Burke, father of victim Mark Burke, said: “Somebody out there knows something.”

Mark, 37, was last seen leaving Dun Laoghaire District Court on July 28 last year.

His remains were found at the Thornton’s recycling facility in Ballyfermot three days later, but were not positively identified until weeks later.

In the meantime, his family had reported him as missing to gardaí, who said yesterday the investigation was continuing.

Yesterday on the Today with Sean O’Rourke programme on RTÉ radio, Mr Burke said his son was a “lovely young fellow growing up, grand, just a normal child”. But he said Mark had suffered from depression.

He said his son had never touched drugs but had struggled with an alcohol problem and would also have been homeless “on and off” for a number of years.

He said Mark’s partner and his seven children were heartbroken over his brutal death.

At the time of the murder, Mark had been staying at the Bentley House hostel in Dún Laoghaire.

“He wasn’t totally homeless, he walked out. He was hard to live with because of his alcohol problems,” Mr Burke said. “

The problems manifested themselves in some petty crime, such as stealing cans of beer from shops or not paying on the Luas, resulting in some minor jail terms.

Mr Burke said that the family became increasingly worried for Mark when he failed to get in touch with them for a number of weeks, while RTÉ’s Crimecall programme had featured the discovery of the human remains in the Thornton facility not long afterwards.

At a later stage, the father asked the gardaí to check whether the remains belonged to Mark. Gardaí later confirmed the identity through DNA.

On learning that his son was dead, Mr Burke said: “I can’t explain the feeling you get. Why would anybody do that to Mark or to any human being?”

As yet there has been no breakthrough in the case, prompting the family to issue a leaflet and what Mr Burke called a “substantial reward” for any information leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever carried out the murder.

Anyone with information can contact the gardaí or 085 783 0081 directly.