Tragedy as young man's body is recovered in Sligo

The body of a young man who went missing last Saturday has been discovered in Sligo. 

At approximately 2pm yesterday, a find was made in the Barnaribbon forest, and later confirmed to be David Slanina, who was deceased. The area in which he was located was a thickly forested section, with dense vegetation, requiring the use of extra equipment by Army and Garda personnel. His remains were removed from the scene by Mountain Rescue Team members, and were then transferred to Sligo University Hospital.

“This was tragic outcome at the end of a four-day search for Mr. Slanina, and Sligo Leitrim Mountain Rescue Team would like to extend our deepest sympathies to David’s family”, said Henry Doherty, Sligo Leitrim Mountain Rescue (SLMRT) PRO. “This was a major search operation and shows the high level of inter-agency cooperation between Mountain Rescue, An Garda Siochána, Civil Defence, the Coastguard, and the Defence Forces.

An Garda Síochána would like to thank the media and the public for their assistance.

On Sunday, July 9 2023, SLMRT were tasked by An Garda Siochána to look for the missing man in the Grange area of  Sligo.

“David Slanina, a resident of Munninane, Co. Sligo had gone out for a run on Saturday evening and failed to return home,” stated Mr Doherty.

“Fifteen Mountain Rescue Team members responded to the callout and an initial search was conducted in the area of the Benbulben forest walk,“ continued Mr Doherty, “as the area is very popular with locals for trail running. At this stage there was no evidence as to what route the young man may have taken for his run”.

Despite an initial search in the area near his home and around Cashelgarren on Sunday morning, the Rescue Team were unable to locate him, and additional resources were brought to assist with the search later that Sunday afternoon with. Ten members of the Northwest Mountain Rescue team, based in Northern Ireland, a SARDA dog-team and Coastguard Helicopter Rescue 118 joined the search.

“The conditions on Sunday were very challenging with blustery winds and rain making the terrain very unstable and loose underfoot. With darkness descending the teams were stood down at 10:30pm that evening.”

The search resumed on Monday 10 July and SLMRT were joined again by members of the Northwest Mountain Rescue team, along with a specialist drone team, and two dog teams from Search and Rescue Dog Association (SARDA) Ireland North. Members of Sligo Civil Defence were also in attendance and following an appeal to the public by An Garda Siochána, over 70 volunteers from the North Sligo area, arrived at Henry’s bar and restaurant in Cashelgarren, to offer help in the search.

At this stage the search area had been widened to include numerous local side roads and farmland in the hope that the young man had taken shelter in an outbuilding. A huge area was covered in the search, ranging from Carney to Grange, as well as eastwards to Derrylehan old school.

Unfortunately, this did not yield any trace of David's whereabouts and the search was stood down at 6pm on Monday evening.

The search would continue into a third day on Tuesday morning, and at this point concerns for his safety were increasing, but all team members were still hopeful of a positive outcome. Again, a large turnout by members of the public allowed for the examination of ditches, drains, and deserted outbuildings.

Following further investigation by the Gardaí, CCTV footage revealed that a person matching David’s description had been identified on the road leading towards the Sligo Gun Club, to the west of the Benbulben Forest Walk. This allowed the various teams to concentrate their search within a specific area focused on this point and David’s home at Munninane. Despite extensive and highly concentrated searches over fields, and further woodland searches, there was still no sign of

the missing man.

On the fourth day of the search, 12 July, Mountain Rescue personnel from Donegal, Northwest, SARDA, Mayo and Galway arrived to join in the effort, as did members of the Defence Forces. “This search would focus around the Barnaribbon/ Gortarowey area as the CCTV footage was the best lead we had in four days of searching,” explained Henry Doherty.

It was during this day that David's body was found. 

Sligo Leitrim Mountain Rescue Team wish to thank in particular, the local community in Grange who

supported the search effort and search teams, over such a long period. The presence of many local

farmers and landowners, with detailed knowledge of the surrounding area helped enormously and

many gave up two or more days of their time to help find David. “Local people graciously provided

food and refreshments for the search parties, and several turned up on all four days of the search.

Their contribution was invaluable and it shows the great community spirit of the people of North

Sligo .”