25-year search for missing 43-year-old Charles Brooke Pickard ‘very much live’

The search for the remains of 43-year-old Charles Brooke Pickard, missing since his abduction by a number of masked, armed men in South Kerry a quarter of a century ago, is part of an investigation that was “very much live”, a press conference was told yesterday.

Gardaí have long believed the disappearance was linked to a dispute over drugs money and involved hired gunmen from the North.

An excavation of an area surrounded by forestry at Derrennageeha near the remote Ballaghisheen Pass, 1km from where Mr Pickard’s burnt-out van was found three weeks after his disappearance, began at first light yesterday and will continue for at least a week, or as long as necessary.