Jon Hill looks uncomfortable standing beside a wooden sculpture in a garden tucked away in a leafy north Belfast suburb.
The former senior Metropolitan Police detective is waiting for his photograph to be taken and points to a tree planted by a son of Jean McConville, the mother-of-10 abducted and murdered by the IRA more than 50 years ago.
Hand-written messages on metal chimes hang from its branches on a bitterly cold January afternoon.
Hill reads the words carved into the sculpture by a survivor of the Troubles, the decades-long Northern Ireland conflict, and asks if he can go to another part of the garden – known as “the garden of hope” – in the grounds of the Wave Trauma Centre.
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“Sorry, I don’t want to link in to other people’s sorrow and grief; it’s not fair to them,” he tells the photographer for The Irish Times.
This is one of the locations where the Londoner has met bereaved relatives of the “Disappeared” through his family-liaison role with the group that searches for the bodies of those killed and secretly buried by republican paramilitaries during the North’s conflict.
An ex-member of the Met’s Flying Squad, Hill (72) is entering his 19th year with the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains (ICLVR) where he is now lead investigator after his close colleague, Geoff Knupfer, retired from the post last year.
It is a job that is “always on my mind,” says Hill. “More so recently; it has been constant.”
To date, 13 of the 17 Disappeared victims have been found since the commission was set by the Irish and UK governments in 1999 as part of the peace process.
Initially “loaned out” on a three-month posting by the Police Service of Northern Ireland’s former Historical Enquiries Team in 2006, Hill has been involved in the recovery of eight bodies.
“Hopefully it might be nine soon,” he says, referencing the current search for west Belfast man Joe Lynskey, who has been missing for more than a half-century.
In November the commission confirmed its team had exhumed a grave in the village of Annyalla, Co Monaghan, after receiving information linked to the location of Lynskey’s remains, which crucially backed up earlier leads.
A former Cistercian monk who became an IRA intelligence officer, Lynskey was the first of the Disappeared; he was killed and buried by the IRA in 1972 after becoming involved in an affair with the wife of another IRA man, who he ordered to have shot, without it being sanctioned by the organisation.
[ Monaghan grave exhumed in search for Disappeared victim Joe LynskeyOpens in new window ]
Asked for an update on the case, Hill gives a cautious response.
“We believed when we started out that we were looking for the remains of Joe Lynskey; we still hope that we are but until we get a DNA result we can’t conclude that,” he says.
Forensic archaeologists hired by the commission are involved in the “painstaking” process.
“It’s still ongoing and I really can’t say any more than that. It’s just unfortunate that sometimes they take a long time. It’s the science involved,” he says.
The grave in the Border cemetery between Castleblayney and Monaghan town is a family plot. Hill confirms that some of the remains have now been reinterred.
Speculation that the development in the Lynskey search was linked to Say Nothing, the Troubles television drama that was first broadcast on Disney’s streaming service, is dismissed by Hill, who insists the process was under way “months” before its release in November.
The commission do such a great job and I don’t think anybody realises how much they put into it. They live in England, they come over here, they’re having to leave their families. When they phone us and speak to us, it’s personal
— Maria Lynskey
He reveals the commission has recently been contacted by “a handful” of people affected by the Disney+ series, which includes harrowing scenes portraying the final hours of McConville and Lynskey.
“Information has come forward from some people who have suggested it’s as a result of that drama. Whether that information is any use yet, I don’t know because it’s too early to say,” Hill says.
“These people have decided to speak to us because of the impact it has had on them. It might be someone has seen something that they thought was relevant to us. So, yes, it’s promoted that interest.”
The backstory to Disney's IRA thriller Say Nothing
Hill says he has watched the nine-part series, describing it as “quite powerful”.
“I don’t see how anyone can’t be affected by watching it,” he says.
But he takes issue with some of the portrayals.
“I have to say, as I watched it, I don’t think some of it is accurate. I can’t really go into detail around that because then that’s saying what I do know. We’re really limited on what we can say, and quite rightly,” he says.
For Hill, the plight of the families of the four remaining Disappeared – Columba McVeigh, the Co Tyrone teenager abducted and murdered in 1975; Seamus Maguire, from Co Armagh, who vanished in the 1970s, Lynskey and British army officer Captain Robert Nairac, who was abducted by the IRA in Co Armagh in 1977 killed – is what motivates him to continue.
“The families have done nothing wrong and they don’t deserve to be in the position they are in now; it’s an ongoing torture for them.”
[ Family of Jean McConville criticise ‘hurtful’ Disney+ dramatisationOpens in new window ]
Lynskey’s niece Maria recalls the first time she met Hill. Her family had thought Lynskey had fled to United States, but the IRA admitted to his killing and secret burial in 2010.
“It was traumatic for us because we didn’t know about Joe. It was putting me into a world I didn’t understand. I was quite frightened,” she says.
“But Jon would just put you at ease right away. He is passionate about the work. The commission do such a great job and I don’t think anybody realises how much they put into it. They live in England, they come over here, they’re having to leave their families. When they phone us and speak to us, it’s personal.”
The dig in Monaghan has been “constantly” on her mind.
“These people are trying to do their best for us. I’m even getting emotional now as I know what they do,” Ms Lynskey says. “Jon just can’t let go. He wants to complete it.”
When a body is recovered, there is a range of emotions, according to Hill, as this is “where the work starts”.
“People often ask me if there is a great euphoria but it actually isn’t like that,” he says.
“For us, there is of course a big feeling of ‘thank goodness, at last there’s some success here’, but because you instantly go straight in to the next stage of the work you don’t wallow in that for too long.
“The commission cannot prosecute but we have to go through all the processes and get all the information we need to set before the coroner, because there will be an inquest.”
The model has been drawn on by other countries, including Chile.
“We have got no powers of arrest. We cannot detain people. We have to encourage them to come forward and the biggest way we do that is through the confidentiality we are able to offer, and the fact it is never revealed out of our very small team,” Hill says.
“This is the only work that we do. So we’re able to devote a lot of time and attention to it; consequently it kind of takes over your life a little bit.”
Only once during his 30-year career in the Met investigating serious organised crime was he asked to go to Northern Ireland – a request he turned down.
“It was seen as such an unfriendly place. There were precautions you had to take as a police officer that I wouldn’t have wanted to take,” he says.
Meeting privately with some former paramilitaries through his commission role has been an “eye opener”.
“I have dealt with people I have been quite cautious about, and I thought: ‘Maybe I wouldn’t want to meet that person in a dark alleyway,’” he says.
“But we have always had a common interest. It would be very unusual for me to meet someone who doesn’t want to talk to me, because there’s no point. There’s no compulsion for anyone to speak to us; everything has to be done with consent.”
Close relationships have been built with relatives, some of whom were ostracised by their own communities after their loved ones were accused of being suspected informers.
“A lot of it comes down to trust,” Hill says.
“For the first number of years it was more difficult, some of it got easier as time went on and trust – and friendships – were built up. There was a great deal of trust, perhaps too much trust and too much hope. They all deserve hope though it’s very hard to live up to some of it sometimes. But we’re still here.”
For the moment, Hill still “holds out hope” in all four cases. Three of the bodies are known to be buried in the Republic, with Seamus Maguire’s remains thought to be located in the North.
He believes Columba McVeigh is buried in Bragan Bog in Co Monaghan – “and I believe the people who told us he’s there believe he’s there. It’s just that we’re not in quite the right spot,” he says.
“We have searched maybe 22 to 24 acres, off the top of my head, and lot of that has been searched more than once. The same ground has been searched because the information has changed and evolved over the years.”
Since his predecessor’s retirement, four new part-time investigators have come on board.
“I do foresee developments in all of the cases; they are being worked on constantly. Things change all the time and other things stay the same,” he says.
“I wouldn’t say retirement isn’t on the cards – but I couldn’t retire peacefully knowing there’s four people still to be recovered.
“I would love to see all of them recovered and I would walk away happily into the moonlight. It’s just very, very difficult.”
Anyone with information can contact the ICLVR on 00800-55585500 or +353 1 602 8655, via email to Secretary@iclvr.ie or by post to ICLVR PO Box 10827. CrimeStoppers can be contacted on 0800 555 111 and the untraceable anonymous online form is at www.crimestoppers-uk.org.
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