Gardaí investigating the discovery of human remains in fishing nets off the Irish coast have confirmed that a fisherman, matching identification documentation found on the body, went missing from a Spanish trawler last year. Supt Declan O’Sullivan of Bantry Garda Station confirmed that gardaí have received confirmation from Spanish police that a 38-year-old fisherman whose name matches that on an ID card found on the human remains was reported as going missing from a Spanish trawler fishing in Atlantic in 2018. The man is not from Europe so gardaí have now begun liaising with Interpol to make contact with police in his home country so they can approach his family to obtain a DNA sample which they can then seek to match with DNA samples taken at post-mortem, he said. According to Supt O’Sullivan, it may take several weeks for the DNA samples to be obtained from the man’s family and a match obtained with the DNA samples taken at post-mortem to conclusively confirm the man’s identity. The man’s remains were brought to Cork University Hospital where Assistant State Pathologist, Dr Margaret Bolster carried out a post-mortem examination at which she took DNA samples which will now be used to try and confirm the man’s identity once family DNA samples are received.

Source: The Irish Times February 06, 2019 17:03 UTC