Family's appeal as search for bog body goes on

The family of young Belfast man, presumed murdered and buried at Emlagh Bog, Oristown, issued an impassioned appeal this week for new information as the search goes on for his remains. Brendan Megraw was abducted from his home at Twinbrook in 1978, just a month before his 23rd birthday. He had left early in the morning to meet his mother Brigid in the city centre. Nine men went to his home and injected his pregnant wife Maree with a tranquiliser or sedative and waited for him to arrive back. Although his wife was hysterical, he had no option but to go with the men and has not been seen since. In 1999, Brendan's brother, Kieran, was called to a meeting where he was told by IRA representatives that his brother had been abducted by the IRA and shot. Shortly afterwards a list of IRA victims was released and Brendan Megraw's name was on it. The information was given that his body was buried at Emlagh Bog, Oristown. A search for his remains, along with a parallel search for two 25-year-old Belfast men, Seamus Wright and Kevin McKee, at Coghalstown Bog, Wilkinstown, has been going on for some time, so far without result. Brendan's brother Sean, who lives in Kildare, this week made an appeal on behalf of the family to anyone who might have information about his brother's burial location to contact the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains in confidence.