Searches at Kyran Durnin's family home enters third day 

Gardai forensic officers at a house in Dundalk, Co Louth as they search a former family home, in the investigation into the suspected murder of eight-year-old Kyran Durnin.  

Searches at the former family home of Kyran Durnin are to resume on Thursday morning in Dundalk as part of the Garda investigation into the suspected murder of the eight-year-old. 

Kyran is missing presumed dead, with gardaí believing that he may have been killed up to years ago. 

A missing person's report was filed in August this year in relation to the eight-year-old boy. 

Gardaí were told he was last seen two days before August 30. 

However, it was upgraded to a murder investigation following information which led gardaí to believe that Kyran was missing for more than two days. 

Kyran Durnin

The search operation at the boy's former family home has now entered its third day, which gardaí hope will provide evidence as to Kyran's whereabouts or what happened to him. 

An area of wasteland will remain the focus of this morning's search, it is understood, as garda forensic experts and members of the Garda Technical Bureau lead the search.

The home at Emer Terrace was seized under court order. 

Gardaí have emphasised that the current tenants of the house are "not connected in any way with Kyran or his disappearance." 

It is understood that at least three more properties will be searched as part of the effort to locate Kyran's remains. 

Justice Minister, Helen McEntee, has said that if people need to be held accountable in the case of Kyrin Durnin then that would happen and she also called for anyone with information in the case of Kyran Durnin to come forward to assist in the investigation.

“I would just encourage anybody that has any information that they feel might not be significant, but any small detail might help on this,” she told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland on Thursday. 

Ms McEntee said she hoped that the case would be resolved as quickly as possible and that if people needed to be held accountable then that would happen. 

“If there are changes that need to happen with any of the structures in our state, then that has to happen, too. This is a young boy and it really is a really devastating case.

“I think we're all devastated at the idea that a child could be missing for potentially two years. I mean, the last sighting that we know of was in 2022 towards the end of the year. So we need to understand what's happened here.” 

Ms McEntee said there was an ongoing garda investigation and it would be helpful in understanding what happened in those two years, and before as well.

 “Were there failures here? Was there something that could be done? Because there is now a murder investigation. This is not a missing child investigation. This is a murder investigation. So how has this happened? What has happened to Kyran Durnin? How do we find him? And how do we make sure that if there are problems here, that we fix them now?," Ms McEntee added.