Disappearance of Kyran Durnin
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Kyran Durnin | |
|---|---|
| Disappeared | June 1, 2022 (aged 6) Drogheda |
| Status | Missing for 3 years, 10 months and 15 days |
Kyran Durnin is an Irish child who was reported missing to Gardaí at the end of August 2024, with the last confirmed sighting of him being in June 2022 when he was 6-years-old. A murder investigation was launched in October 2024, after Irish authorities received information suggesting that Kyran had died at some point in the previous two years. Despite the chief suspects in his disappearance being questioned by Gardaí and several properties being searched by forensic teams, no trace of Kyran was found and Garda investigations have continued to the present day.
In late May 2022, Kyran's mother, Dayla Durnin, contacted her son's primary school in Dundalk to report that he was in hospital with COVID-19 and would be absent from school for the next few weeks. In June 2022, Kyran's family then informed the school that they were relocating to Newry in Northern Ireland and that Kyran would therefore not be returning after the summer holidays.[1] Despite Kyran supposedly having moved out of the jurisdiction, it is believed that social welfare and child benefits continued to be paid to his mother by the Department of Social Protection.[2]In May 2024, the Durnin family moved out of their house at Emer Terrace in Dundalk.[3]
In early 2024, child welfare officials working for Tusla became concerned about the Durnin family, and requested a face-to-face meeting. During their engagement with the wider Durnin family, new information came to light that caused concern to Tusla in relation to Kyran’s whereabouts specifically.[4] A meeting took place in mid-July 2024 with the family and a child that Tusla officials understood to be Kyran, with another face-to-face meeting taking place in early August 2024.[1][2]
Missing person investigation
On 29 August 2024, Kyran's maternal grandmother Rhonda Byrne Tyson contacted Tusla with concerns over her daughter Dayla and Kyran, as they both had gone missing from the house they shared. Tyson was advised to notify Gardaí, while Tusla also separately reported the matter to Garda officials.[1] The next day, Tyson filed a missing person report at Drogheda garda station, stating that she had last seen her 24-year-old daughter Dayla Durnin and her 8-year-old grandson Kyran Durnin around 11pm two days prior and was concerned about their well-being.[5] In early September 2024, Gardaí launched a public appeal for information regarding the whereabouts of Dayla and Kyran Durnin, which included physical descriptions and the items of clothing they were both believed to be wearing.[6][7]
On 24 September 2024, Tyson gave an interview to the Drogheda Life newspaper regarding the sudden disappearance of Dayla and Kyran from her house in Hand Street the previous month. Dayla's other children, daughters 7-year-old Laseigh and 3-year-old Isla, were sleeping upstairs in a bedroom while Dayla and Kyran had been sleeping on a downstairs sofa, and Tyson last seen them when she went to bed around 11pm. When Tyson got up the next morning, Dayla and Kyran were missing from the house, however Dayla had left a note on a table that said she needed to "get away for a few days". Tyson claimed to have been attempting to call Dayla's mobile phone several times a day since, but her calls were being diverted straight to voicemail, and made a public plea for Dayla to get in touch to let her know she and Kyran were safe.[8]
While subsequent Garda inquiries confirmed that Dayla had traveled to England via Northern Ireland,[9] investigations into Kyran's whereabouts uncovered no documentary evidence to prove he was admitted to hospital in 2022 with COVID-19, nor did he ever attend any school in Northern Ireland. Gardaí also established that the boy who attended the Tusla social workers meetings with Dayla Durnin was not Kyran.[10]