Partial remains of young man discovered off coast of Dublin

Sunday World

14-05-2025

Gardaí have launched an investigation
Partial remains of a man who died recently were discovered by fishermen on the seabed off the coast of Skerries, Co Dublin last year.
The Sunday World understands that an examination of the two leg bones revealed that they belonged to a male who was 23 years or older at the time of his death, which was estimated to be 'one to two years' before the remains were found.
This means the man likely died in 2022 or 2023.
The grim find was only added to the Department of Justice's public database of unidentified remains in recent weeks after DNA testing failed to match them to a missing person.
A left tibia and left fibula were found on May 7th 2024, and another partial human bone was discovered the following day May 8th.
Forensic examination of the bones suggests he was between 175cm (5'8') and 181cm (5'10') in height.
It is not known when, where, or how the remains entered the water.
The three bones remain unidentified, as no match was found when compared to the National DNA missing persons database.
The database, which is managed by Forensic Science Ireland (FSI), stores the DNA profiles of missing people, and or their close family members.
The Dublin coroner has not yet received a response from authorities in the UK or Interpol on the matter.
Determining the identity of the remains will determine the course of the ongoing Garda investigation.
Skerries beach, Co Dublin
News in 90 Seconds - May 14th
Samples from more distant relatives such as uncles, aunts or cousins, are not currently processed by the current DNA technology in use, but such samples can be stored by FSI.
Interpol use 'I-Familia', a dedicated global database for identifying missing persons based on international DNA kinship matching.
When DNA profiles from more than two relatives of a missing person are available to FSI, they can submit them for inclusion in the international database.
At present, Ireland doesn't openly exchange DNA data with other genealogy services, such as direct-to-consumer DNA websites that have been used to solve unidentified persons cases in the United States.