Arrest made in baffling murder of 8yo boy: ‘Never seen a case like it’

A woman in her 20s has been arrested on suspicion of murder in a major breakthrough in the case of missing schoolboy Kyran Durnin.

A woman has been arrested in connection with the disappearance and murder of eight-year-old Kyran Durnin - as a case that has gripped Ireland takes a dramatic twist.

The suspect was arrested on suspicion of murder on Wednesday and is being held in a police station in the east of the country.

Kyran was reported missing four months ago but police believe he has not been seen alive since the end of the summer school term in May/June 2022.

A woman has been arrested in connection to the probe into missing Kyran Durnin.

A spokesman said: “Gardaí investigating the disappearance and murder of Kyran Durnin (8 years) have today arrested a female on suspicion of murder.

“The woman is being detained under Section 4 Criminal Justice Act 1984 at a Garda Station in the east of the country.”

Detectives believe Kyran was murdered, but have yet to establish how and when he died.

He was reported missing along with his mother Dayla, 24, on August 30 by an individual who said they were last seen together at a house in Drogheda, Co Louth two days previously.

Around the same time, Tusla, the child protection agency, also reported the little boy’s disappearance to the Gardai.

An eagle-eyed social worker realised that a young boy brought to a meeting with child protection officials was not Kyran, and raised the alarm.

Kyran was reported missing back in October.

Police say they believe the boy hasn't been seen alive since 2022.

Over the month of September, as police began their initial inquiries, it’s understood a person came forward and told cops they believed the child was dead.

The more people that police interviewed, the more they discovered that nobody had actually seen the child in almost two years.

By October, police launched a full scale murder inquiry.

They quickly established that the little boy was last seen alive publicly at a school in Dundalk at the end of May 2022.

The family had been living in a rented house nearby, and the primary school Kyran attended was told he was leaving because the family were moving across the border to Newry.

Detectives soon tracked down Kyran’s mother after discovering she was staying in Ipswich, England.

She told Suffolk police she fled the country because she feared for her own safety, but she also had no idea where her son was.

Kyran’s mum Dayla. Picture: Supplied

An extensive search of the family’s former Dundalk home found little or nothing.

Officers dug up the back of the terraced house and some nearby waste ground, but there was no sign of the child’s remains.

Police have indicated that there will be more searches and digs to try and find Kyran. The public will be informed before they move in. The next searches are likely to be in the Drogheda area.

Detectives told the Irish Sun in October they have been given specific information from a source that the child is dead but they don’t know for how long.

The police source said: “I have never seen a case like it in all my life.

“We just want to find out where Kyran is now and what in the name of God happened to him.

“The people in the local community are extremely worried about the little boy.”

This article was originally published by The Sun and reproduced with permission