LAST UPDATE | 25 May

GARDAÍ INVESTIGATING THE disappearance and murder of Kyran Durnin have today arrested a woman in her 50s. 

A search is being carried out at the rear of a house in Drogheda, Co Louth this morning. 

The woman is currently being detained at a garda station in the eastern region, a garda spokesperson has said. 

The spokesperson added that investigations are ongoing. 

Kyran was reported missing alongside his mother from a Co Louth home in August 2024. Though her whereabouts were later established, he was never found, and gardaí subsequently opened a murder investigation. 

If he were still alive, he would be nine-years-old.

File image of Kyrnin Durnin. Garda Press Office Garda Press Office

Nobody has been found and though two people, a man and a woman, have previously been arrested and later released in connection with the boy’s disappearance, no one has been charged with his murder to date. 

Tusla had engagement with Kyran Durnin and his family during his life, but the agency has said that engagement ended in 2022, despite the fact that Durnin stopped attending school in the South after the summer of 2022. 

Speaking to reporters this afternoon, Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan said he was pleased there has been a development in relation to “this horrific crime”.

He said while he would not comment on the ongoing garda investigation, he added: “There are people out there who have information in respect of this crime, and that information should be brought to the attention of An Garda Síochána.

“The only mechanism in order that justice can be served is if the gardaí investigate, have sufficient information to pass on to the DPP for a prosecution, and then our courts deal with the matter.

“So, anyone who has information in respect of Kyran Durnin needs to give that information to An Garda Síochána.”