Searches to begin tomorrow in Ballyfoyle for missing Kilkenny man

Searches will commence tomorrow (Friday) of a ravine close to where a Kilkenny man, Dean Roche, was last seen alive in March 2015.

Dean Roche from Hebron Park went missing on the night of March 22, 2015 when he went to buy a car in the Ballyfoyle area.

A short time later after purchasing the car it was found crashed down the road and Dean vanished that night, never to be seen again. He was wearing a zip up tracksuit top, tracksuit bottoms and was wearing a red, beanie-style hat.

Family and friends of Dean Roche and Councillor Joe Malone met with senior gardaí, including the Deputy Garda Commissioner, Shauna Coxon, Assistant Commissioner of the Eastern Region, Paul Cleary, Superintendent at Kilkenny Garda Station, Seán O’Meara. A review of the investigation is now taking place with a senior garda inspector overseeing the review.

A drone has been used to help map and survey where Dean was last sighted and searching is expecting to start tomorrow (Friday).  Approximately thirty members of The Civil Defence and twenty gardaí have been deployed to carry out the searches.

Approximately 300 statements which were made to gardaí that they are been re-examined at the moment and gardaí will be speaking to a number of people in relation to Dean's disappearance over the coming days.

"We will be calling back to some witnesses to see if there is anything that they might have overlooked or forgotton about. There might be information that someone has that they consider to be insignificant but that might be of interest. We are asking anyone with information, no matter how trivial they might think it is, to contact us," said Superintendent Seán O'Meara.

The superintendent also pointed out that Kilkenny played Clare on the date Dean Roche was last seen alive beating them by a point and added that the two teams met the following week at the same venue in a regulation playoff.

"We are asking people to jog their memories back to that time and anyone who has information to contact us," he said adding that gardaí are not ruling anything in or out at the time.

"We are taking a fresh look at all possibilities. We are going back to some of the people that we spoke to at the time and see if there is anything there that might lead us in a further direction," he said.

Cllr Malone has been advocating on behalf of the Roche family since Dean's disappearance and described the recent meeting between the family and senior gardaí as 'a positive meeting'.

Inspector James O'Brien, who is heading up the review said that gardaí will be assisted both by members of the local Civil Defence and the Wicklow Civil Defence along with Molly, a Cavader dog.

"We have used a sophisticated drone from Wicklow Civil Defence which we used to map out the heights and distances of the areas that we are going to search. They have given us expert advice and we have been mapping and gridding the areas," he said. 

The searches could last up to three weeks and gardaí are committed to leaving no stone unturned.

"There are no guarantees but will be use every bit of our resources to try and find Dean. We have huge sympathy for the Roche family, Dean will be missing ten years next March and we would love for Dean's family and friends to get the answers they need.

"We also want to let the people living in the Ballyfoyle area that people will be getting a knock on the door or a phone call from gardaí over the coming days. We just want to make sure nothing was missed and we are appealing to anyone with information on the disappearance of Dean Roche to contact us, no matter how insignificant they might feel it is it could be crucial for us in solving what happened to him," said Supt O'Meara.