image hosting services. A BROTHER of one of two men shot in the back of the head and dumped on a remote island warned their killers last night: “We will find you.” A furious Ruairi O’Connor vowed in an interview with The Star: “We will do everything we can to find the people who did this. He was speaking as gardai began a murder probe into the deaths of his brother Eoin O’Connor (32) and Anthony Keegan (34).
The two friends’ badly decomposed bodies were found on an island in a Co Meath lake just after 4pm on Monday.
And it was confirmed last night that the remains had been formally identified as those of the pals — who went missing more than a month ago.
Tribute
And now Ruairi has told The Star that the family is determined to track down the pair’s killers.
SHOT: Eoin O’Connor He said: “When we do we will deal with it in our own way. We are afraid of nobody.”
Ruairi also told The Star “We are just thankful to God that they were both found. We still want to know what happened to them.”
Businessman Ruairi paid tribute to the gardai who have been searching for the friends since they vanished on April 22.
The pair went missing when they went from their native Coolock in north Dublin to the Ballyjamesduff area of Co Cavan to recover a drugs debt.
Ruairi said: “The Gardai have been absolutely fantastic. They have always been in touch with us.
Grim
“And the people of Cavan have been brilliant too.”
The men’s bodies were found on an island on Lough Sheelin on the Cavan-Meath border.
Sources told The Star that gardai believe they were killed on the day they were last seen — April 22.
A preliminary examination by State Pathologist Professor Marie Cassidy found that both men had been shot in the back of the head at close range, sources said.
The bodies had badly decomposed after they were left together tied in a blue tarpaulin with leaves and branches over it for more than a month.
The grim find was made on Monday by the Garda Dog Unit in a planned search.
A silver Ford Focus car that had been used by the two men was found abandoned last April 25 at Lough Owel outside Mullingar, Co Westmeath.
DUMPED: Anthony Keegan Gardai are probing the theory that the pair were killed over a €15,000 drugs debt they went to collect.
One theory is that they were killed by small-time drug dealers who owed them the cash.
The other is that they were murdered by a gang who muscled in on the debt.
Officers say they suspect the local gang may have become aware of the debt and offered to deal with it — in return for just €10,000.
And it is suspected that when the pals went to collect the cash owed to them, the gang murdered them.
Sources say gardai believe the bodies — taken to the island on a small boat — were disposed of by just one man.
Panic
That man managed to drag both bodies into the boat, row some 500 metres to the island, lift them out and dump them in undergrowth.
Meanwhile, sources also revealed that a female suspect rang her father in a panic shortly after the killing — and begged for money to help her and pals get out of Ireland.
“She told her father, ‘Something terrible has happened — we need money to get out of here’,” a source said.
Several suspects are now in England — including at least one foreign national.
But gardai expect to make a move on suspects in the coming days and will extradite people back to Ireland to face charges if necessary.
Gardai have also sealed off a house in the Mountnugent area, close to Lough Sheelin, but officers do not believe the murders took place there.
