Fresh search to begin for Columba McVeigh

A FRESH search is to began on Monday (October 3) at Bragan Bog near Emyvale in County Monaghan for the remains of Columba McVeigh, one of ‘The Disappeared’.

The Commissioner of the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains, Tim Dalton and Rosalie Flanagan, have agreed that the investigations team will return to the site to search for the remains of Mr McVeigh, who was abducted, murdered and secretly buried in 1975. To date five searches, the most recent ending in September 2019, have been carried out in Bragan Bog since 1999.

Jon Hill, senior investigator with the ICLVR, who will take operational control of the search, said, “We are looking at an area of around two acres in total which we’ll work on in two phases.

“I can’t put a timeframe on the search, but hopefully we would hope to see success in phase one which starts today.

“In terms of how the search will progress, much will depend on the weather and the state of the bog as we move through the autumn.

“There is an additional challenge in that part of the area is forested but we’ll deal with that if we have to further down the line.”

A reward of 60,000 US dollars put up by an anonymous donor some years ago is still in place.