For almost three weeks, a Garda search for the remains of a boy, who disappeared some four years ago, painstakingly unfolded just outside Donabate, in north Dublin.
The sound of the engines from the three diggers shifting the earth filled the air as members of the search team milled about. Then very suddenly, just after midday on Wednesday, the site grew still and silent.
Skeletal remains were found, those of a child. Almost immediately The Irish Times broke news of the development and then the Garda published a heartbreaking photograph of the little boy who has been classified as “missing assumed dead” for the past three weeks.
His name was Daniel Aruebose. We know his name because his absence was uncovered by checks designed to identify bogus social welfare claims. If these checks were not made, his body would be still in the earth, his disappearance unnoticed.
RM Block
Daniel would have been seven years old if still alive. However, he died, or was killed, when aged about three and a half years old. And then his body was taken and buried in a field.
On Wednesday after news emerged of the remains being discovered, the only sign anything unusual was happening was the return of reporters, photographers and TV camera crews to the area. They gathered at the site’s perimeter, which was marked by barriers with black canvas in an effort to shield the dig from prying eyes and lenses.
The endless stream of traffic continued to pass on Donabate Road. Young lads in GAA kits cycled by on their way to training.
When Daniel first went missing, nobody with an interest in alerting the authorities noticed. A young boy, living in the middle of an The Gallery apartment complex in Donabate vanished one day and it did not create a ripple. Not on his birthday, not at Christmas, not when he failed to enrol in school, even though he and his parents had been prior clients of Tusla, the child and family agency.
[ How to talk to children about the sudden death of a childOpens in new window ]
But someone was still trying to receive a social welfare payment related to the boy. When recent checks were made, seeking information that would support that claim, an official become concerned about Daniel’s whereabouts and welfare. Those concerns were passed on to Tusla, which then went to gardaí at the end of August. An investigation was initiated at Swords Garda station, north Dublin.
A woman who agreed to speak to gardaí took them to a field just outside Donabate. She pinpointed a precise location on the site, which included marshy land and a pond, and told them Daniel was buried there.
Gardaí sealed if off on the evening of August 31st. They performed a fingertip search and then prodded the land to break the soil in parts before deploying a cadaver dog. But the dog found nothing. Excavations commenced, with diggers brought in.
When the initial location pinpointed by the woman yielded nothing, investigating gardaí became concerned they may be wasting their time. But the woman returned to the land, accompanied by gardaí, and insisted the boy was buried at a specific location.
Gardaí are now hopeful the skeletal remains of Daniel, and the skills of a pathologist, will reveal how he died and whether this may have been a case of murder or unlawful killing.
