Irish police find child remains in hunt for boy not marked as missing for four years

Irish police investigating the fate of a boy who disappeared four years ago but was only registered by authorities as missing last month have found the remains of a child on Dublin wasteland.

Gardaí named the missing boy as Daniel Aruebose, who is thought to have vanished in 2022 aged three, after they discovered the remains on Wednesday in the Donabate area of north Dublin.

Officers secured the scene pending examinations by a pathologist and forensic anthropologist. Police believe the body is that of Daniel but formal identification must await DNA analysis.

Specialist teams and a cadaver dog began the search on 1 September after authorities became aware that the child was missing.

The case has put renewed scrutiny on child welfare services after it emerged Daniel had been missing for four years without authorities knowing. Another child, Kyran Durnin, disappeared in 2022 but was not noticed by authorities until August last year.

The alarm was first raised over Daniel in late August when the department of social protection alerted Ireland’s child and family agency, Tusla, to irregularities in an application for child support payments. Tusla alerted the police, who made house-to-house inquiries at the Gallery apartment complex in Dublin where Daniel had previously lived, before launching what turned into a 17-day search of open ground.

Police urged anyone with relevant information to come forward and appealed to the public to beware “speculation, rumours and theories” about what happened to Daniel. “An Garda Síochána appeals to all members of the public to independently verify any information that you are reading on social media and/or messaging apps,” said a statement.

The children’s minister, Norma Foley, said the death of a child was always heartbreaking and upsetting. “But it is especially so for those who knew and loved this child. I extend my very sincere sympathy to all involved.”

Tusla confirmed earlier this month it had been in contact with Daniel and his parents in 2020. The agency arranged foster care for the boy but his parents then decided to keep him, leading to Tusla closing the case.

The case has been referred to the independent National Review Panel for investigation and the government has instructed Tusla to undertake “wellbeing checks” on other cases closed during the pandemic.

The case shares eerie parallels with that of Kyran Durnin, who was last seen in May 2022 when he was six and a pupil at a primary school in Dundalk, County Louth, but whose disappearance was only confirmed last year. If still alive he would be nine. Police took the unusual step of opening a murder investigation even though no body has been found.

Simon Harris, who was taoiseach when the disappearance was noticed, called the case deeply disturbing. “For any of us as a human being, for any of us parents, to think that a child can effectively disappear and go unnoticed … is utterly heartbreaking and clearly something went extraordinarily wrong here.”