Gardaí in Co Laois called off the excavation of a graveyard plot yesterday after they found no evidence to support claims that it contained an extra body.
Detectives received information in recent weeks that a plot used to bury a local elderly man at Ballylinan Cemetery 11 years ago may also have contained the remains of a young woman.
Information gardaí received suggested the woman's remains may have been placed in the plot around the time of the burial of the man early in 1994.
However, Supt Kevin Donohue yesterday said that after a thorough excavation, there was no substance to the information the gardaí received. "We're satisfied that the information given to us was given in good faith, but it has not been substantiated and is incorrect," he said.
"The information we received indicated that a body was in the grave that shouldn't have been there. There was no specific information as to the identity of the body. It was stand-alone information, if you like," he said.
The excavation, which involved a total of up to 30 gardaí, had led to speculation earlier in the day that the body could have been one of the six women who disappeared in the mid-1990s, who later became the subjects of Operation Trace.
The investigation also came a day after it emerged that Laois man Robert Howard (61), who was investigated by gardaí in connection with some of the missing women, is serving a life sentence for the murder of a 14-year-old girl in Britain.
However, Supt Donohue said gardaí had not linked the search to any specific crime or any missing persons. He said the decision to exhume the local man's body as part of the investigation was a "traumatic and sensitive" decision.
Gardaí were satisfied there was no longer any basis for continuing a search of the graveyard and they had no plans to search elsewhere, Supt Donohue added.
The body exhumed yesterday as part of the search was that of a local elderly man who was buried in or around January 1994. There was no suggestion that any relatives of the deceased man had any connection with the allegations made to gardaí.
Gardaí cordoned off the area on Tuesday evening and began the excavation at around 6am on Wednesday.
The State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy had been notified of the search for a body, although she was never called as it emerged there was no additional body in the plot.
The search revived painful memories for members of the community of the disappearance of Imelda Keenan, a woman who disappeared in January 1994.
Ms Keenan, originally from Mountmellick, Co Laois, had been staying in rented accommodation at Lombard Street, Waterford, at the time she went missing.
There was also speculation that the excavation may have shed light on the disappearance of Annie McCarrick, a 26-year-old American who disappeared in March 1993.
The excavation took place just miles from the birthplace of Robert Howard, who was raised in Wolfhill, Co Laois.
