Appeals were made yesterday for a former IRA man, who revealed the secret burial ground of a mother of 10 murdered by the organisation 25 years ago, to disclose the exact location of her remains. The ex-paramilitary told a priest about Ms Jean McConville's disappearance and then contacted the family.
The RUC will use earth-scanning equipment on a west Belfast building which is due for demolition in the coming weeks if they are given an approximate location of the woman's remains on the site.
Until now, nothing had been known about the fate of 37-yearold Ms McConville, who was abducted by a dozen-strong IRA gang in December 1972. They claimed her "crime" was to have comforted a British soldier wounded in a gun attack outside her front door.
Her daughter, Mrs Helen McKendry, yesterday pleaded with the IRA to provide information about the whereabouts of the bodies of 12 people known as "the disappeared". They were abducted by republicans 20 to 30 years ago and murdered before being dumped in unmarked graves.
Mrs McKendry, of Families of the Disappeared, recently came face to face with a woman who was one of those who took her mother away. The woman shouted abuse and suggested she had been put under great pressure by IRA leaders to reveal where the remains were buried.
Since then, a former IRA member has disclosed that Ms McConville's body is buried under an old building in West Belfast's Divis Flats. But the family want him to show them the precise location.
The RUC is prepared to attempt to recover the body with the aid of radar and scanning equipment.
After Ms McConville was taken by the IRA, eight of her children were put into care.
Mrs McKendry said: "At the start we were afraid to report her missing in case they came back or would not let her go if they still had her. Eventually the family was split up when we were all taken into care. Nowadays we have no real family bond because of all those years we missed together. The IRA destroyed our family." Within the past year, republicans have carried out a campaign of intimidation against the McKendrys for speaking out and they had to flee their home in the Poleglass area of Belfast.
Helen McKendry's husband, Seamus, added: "They even threatened to kill us. We had a beautiful five-bedroom house and had to move because we thought it was for the best. I refused to let our campaign drop. I have had face-to-face confrontations with the IRA and UDA over the disappeared.
"To the IRA man who did contact us, we would plead for him to get in contact again to give us more information. Now there has been a cease-fire, let us give the woman a Christian burial."