Gardaí investigating the murder of Michael Gaine have recovered a chainsaw from his farmyard and have sent it for forensic analysis.
Investigators suspect a chainsaw may have been used to dismember the 56-year-old farmer’s body after he was murdered at his farm near Kenmare, Co Kerry.
The chainsaw was discovered hidden in the farmyard and brought to Forensic Science Ireland’s laboratory in Dublin for examination to see if any DNA evidence could be obtained.
Gardaí believe that Mr Gaine was killed near the cow shed in his farmyard at Carrig East, 6km from Kenmare, soon after the last sighting of him alive at Whyte’s Centra Shop in Kenmare where he was captured at 9.48am on March 20th purchasing phone credit.
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They believe that Mr Gaine’s killer then dismembered his body and disposed of the body parts into the slurry tank beneath the slatted unit where he kept his herd of more than 30 suckler cows over the winter months.
Garda technical experts have been examining the concrete slats in the cowshed to see if they bear any signs of being damaged by a chainsaw cuttings.
Meanwhile, garda sources have confirmed that searchers have recovered more body parts including both tissue and bone as they continue to search the slurry tank and some mounds of slurry solids.
According to one source, gardaí are making progress in collecting human body parts from all three search sites and they estimate that it will take search teams another three or four days before the examination is complete and they have recovered remaining body parts.
Gardaí were alerted on Friday evening to the possibility that Mr Gaine’s body was cut up and dumped into the slurry tank by his killer when his nephew, Mark O’Regan and a local agricultural contractor noticed that their slurry spreader had stopped spreading due to an obstruction.
The two men immediately examined the pipe leading to the splash plate on the slurry spreader and noticed that it was blocked by what appeared to be a human body part, so they notified gardaí who immediately declared the entire farm area a crime scene.
Garda technical experts were joined at the scene on Saturday by State Pathologist Dr Sally Anne Collis and Forensic Anthropologist Dr Laureen Buckley who carried out some preliminary examinations of what was found at the scene on Friday and the slurry tank and slurry spreader.
On Wednesday, members of Kerry County Fire Service were continuing to assist gardaí with a search of the yard and some fields spread with slurry at Carrig East, which is approximately midway between Kenmare town and the popular Moll’s Gap tourist viewing point on the Ring of Kerry.
Locals continued to arrive at the scene to leave flowers and messages of sympathy for Mr Gaine, a sheep and cattle farmer, and his grieving widow, Janice and his sisters Noreen and Catherine, while another had tied a toy sheep to a fence post at the entrance to the property.
“Michael – it’s hard to believe you’re gone – I’ll never forget the way you helped without ever needing to ask – thank you for everything – missing you more than words can say – rest easy,” read one message from neighbours from Caher East, between Kenmare and Kilgarvan.
