Gardaí seek further information on dashcam footage in Michael Gaine case

The Kerry famer was last seen on March 20 in Kenmare

Detectives have had to trawl through more than 2,200 hours of CCTV and dashcam footage taken by gardaí since Michael Gaine went missing

Gardaí have contacted a number of people who gave them dashcam footage in the early days after Kerry farmer Michael Gaine went missing.

They are not releasing information about the footage, but they want to talk to these people as it is understood to be relevant to what is now a criminal investigation.

Detectives have had to trawl through more than 2,200 hours of CCTV and dashcam footage taken by gardaí since Mr Gaine went missing in March.

Gardaí have said previously they are “aware of local speculation, rumours, and misinformation circulating”.

Days before the investigation was upgraded from a missing person’s investigation to a criminal investigation on Wednesday, members of the Defence Forces were called in for a second time to search a patch of land on Mr Gaine’s farm.

It is believed to be either near or the exact same spot that had previously been searched earlier in the investigation.

The Irish Examiner has also learned that detectives checked around the start of April to see if there was any link between the 56-year-old’s disappearance on March 20 with the seizure that same day by gardaí of drugs worth an estimated €20,000 in Kenmare.

A Garda spokesperson said: “Our assessment shows no links.”

Officially, the last time he is known to have been seen alive was on the morning of March 20 when he bought phone credit, a lunch roll, and a bottled drink at the Centra in Kenmare.

He was wearing a distinctive orange woolly hat, a black fleece, blue jeans, and black boots.

A short while later, he walked out into the car park, got into the nine-year-old bronze Toyota Rav4 jeep his wife Janice bought in 2015, and drove onto the Killarney Rd towards Molls Gap.

It is not yet publicly known if he went into the house he shared with Janice in Carhoomeengar East, a short distance from Kenmare before heading straight to his family’s old farmhouse less than 1km from Moll's Gap.

Janice Gaine made a heartfelt appeal for any information about her husband this week.

A friend of the farmer has also launched an awareness campaign to help garner any information that might help solve the mystery of his disappearance.

Tommy Randles, chairperson of the Killarney and District Motor Club — whose rallies Mr Gaine attended — has issued 6,500 stickers with the last known photograph of the farmer, in his distinctive orange hat.

He told the Irish Examiner: “We are doing it to try and remind people about this case.

“As well as stickers we are putting on the programmes and other literatures, we will also have the stickers put on the windscreens of over 160 cars taking part in the Rally of the Lakes.

“Course cars will also have them.”