Witnesses believe they saw Cookstown man the night he disappeared

AN INQUEST today heard from witnesses who believe they saw a Cookstown man on the night he is believed to have disappeared 18 years ago.

Gerard Conway, who was 32, has not been seen since January 2007 and his family believe he has been killed.

At the second day of the inquest into the circumstances around his disappearance, a number of witnesses gave evidence.

The coroner read a statement from a local taxi driver, Patrick Martin Kelly, which was given to police in August 2007.

The statement said that on January 26, 2007, Mr Kelly was taking three young men from Ardboe to Cookstown for a teenage disco when he seen what he is ‘almost 100 percent’ was Mr Conway walking on a dark, rural road on Clare Lane just outside Cookstown.

Mr Kelly, who knew Mr Conway and knows his family, said that he had intended to look out for Mr Conway when he was returning to Ardboe ten minutes later in order to offer him a lift.

However, when he did not see him upon returning to the area, he assumed that someone else may have offered him a lift, or he might have visited family who lived in the area.

Mr Kelly said he ‘didn’t think too much about it’ afterwards, until a number of weeks later when he spoke to Mr Conway’s uncle Andrew who informed him that Mr Conway had gone missing.

A second witness, Ellen Doris, who was a resident in the Clare Lane area around the time of Mr Conway’s disappearance also gave evidence.

A statement from Mrs Doris, which was provided on August 24, 2007, described how, at approximately 9.45pm on the last Friday in January 2007, she received numerous loud knocks to her door, but was anxious to answer it as she was not expecting any visitors.

Having looked through her window, Mr Doris described seeing a man with short, dark hair who was about six feet tall who ‘seemed impatient’.

“He knocked the door again and seemed annoyed,” said Mrs Doris.

“He then turned quickly and walked away.”

Mrs Doris said as the man, who she believed to be Mr Conway, walked away from her house, two cars, heading in the same direction, passed a few seconds later.

“There were two cars coming from the direction of Cookstown as the man in question jogged on down the road,” she said.

“I was concerned that they might not have seen him in the dark.”

Mrs Doris said she never reported the incident until she seen pictures of Mr Conway on the news following reports he was missing.

“My initial thought was ‘no, it couldn’t have been him’,” she explained.

“But then I thought that maybe it could have been, and if there was any chance it was, I would need to inform his family.”

Mrs Doris said she felt it was her duty to inform Mr Conway’s family, but that she didn’t contact the police until they requested a statement from her.

The inquest continues.