Gardaí search Dublin park for missing Icelandic man five years after disappearance

Gardaí using cadaver dogs have carried out a search at a north Dublin park as part of their investigation into missing man Jon Jonsson who disappeared while visiting from Iceland five years ago.

A section of Santry Demesne, a public park and wooded area about 3km from where Mr Jonsson was last seen alive, was sealed off and searched on Tuesday morning, including bodies of water.

The search, involving members of the underwater unit, was conducted after gardaí received anonymous correspondence. It is understood that came from someone claiming to have information about where Mr Jonsson may have gone after the last confirmed sighting of him was recorded on a CCTV camera on the Swords Road in Dublin 9.

However, it was unclear if anything of evidential value was found during the searches, which are believed to have been conducted in the interests of thoroughness.

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Mr Jonsson, a father of four and taxi driver, vanished on February 9th, 2019, after leaving the Bonnington Hotel on the Swords Road, where he had been staying. He had come to Ireland with his fiancee the previous day for a poker tournament and short holiday in Dublin.

The missing man, who was aged 41 years at the time he vanished, left the hotel on foot at about 11am and was recorded by a security camera walking on a pavement about 200m away passing the entrance to a nursing home adjacent to the hotel.

Beyond those images, which were released at the time as part of a public appeal, gardaí have no information about where he went and no trace of him, or evidence of any further movements, has ever been uncovered. He had never been to Ireland and had no friends or family here and had never gone missing before.

Last week, on the fifth anniversary of his disappearance, it was revealed in a fresh Garda appeal that over 270 lines of inquiry had been generated by the investigation team in Ballymun. However, while statements were also taken from witnesses and CCTV harvested from cameras in north Dublin, gardaí appear no closer to establishing what happened to Mr Jonsson.

He is described as being 1.8m (6ft) in height, of medium build, with short brown hair. When he was last recorded on CCTV he was wearing a black padded jacket.

Supt Darren McCarthy last week confirmed gardaí had received two pieces of anonymous correspondence about the case and he appealed to the author or authors to contact his team in confidence. It is understood the searches on Tuesday were linked to the correspondence, though gardaí have not commented on that.

Mr Jonsson left the Bonnington Hotel on the day he disappeared with only the clothes he was wearing and his payment cards. However, his passport, suitcase and other clothes were left in his hotel room and his bank accounts have remained untouched since his disappearance.

He came out of the hotel and on to the Swords Road and walked in a northerly direction; towards the junction with Collins Avenue close to Whitehall church.

He was recorded on CCTV at the entrance to Highfield Nursing home, which is immediately adjacent to the Bonnington Hotel. There are no further confirmed recordings or sightings of him.

While a number of people have called the Garda and reported that they have seen people matching the missing man’s description, none of these possible sightings has been confirmed.

In reply to queries, Garda Headquarters confirmed gardaí were “currently conducting searches in relation to an ongoing missing persons investigation” in the park in Santry.

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