Heartbroken family of missing Trevor Deely to retrace steps 20 years on from disappearance
'This is the 20th year that we?re doing an appeal, and we?re still looking for the same questions to be answered'
BySylvia PownallEditor, Irish Sunday Mirror
08:38, 22 NOV 2020
A missing poster along the Grand Canal in Dublin of Trevor Deely (Image: COLIN KEEGAN/Collins)
THE heartbroken family of missing bank worker Trevor Deely will retrace his final known footsteps to mark the 20th anniversary of his disappearance.
His brother Mark has revealed how they will gather on Haddington Road in Dublin 4, where CCTV picked up the last sighting of Trevor in the early hours of December 8, 2000.
And he admitted that the family?s deep anguish continues as they try to solve the puzzle of what happened to his 22-year-old baby brother on a wet and windy night two decades ago.
Mark told the Irish Sunday Mirror: ?This is the 20th year that we?re doing an appeal, and we?re still looking for the same questions to be answered.
As each year goes by it?s like we?ve dragged out a little bit more detail but still no answers.
?The number 20 has a bit more significance than 18 or 22 years, so there?s that little bit of hope there that we might get the breakthrough.?
Gardai believe grainy footage of a man standing in the shadows outside the Bank of Ireland building as Trevor entered may hold the key to solving the mystery.
Trevor was spotted on CCTV walking away from his office, presumably heading home. But he wasn?t alone.
The footage, which has been repeatedly shared by officers, shows a man dressed in a dark hoodie following him at a distance.
Teetotaller Trevor, who was 6ft 3in with red hair, had attended the Bank of Ireland Asset Management Christmas party at Copper Face Jack?s and Buck Whaley?s.
There was a taxi strike in the capital, so he had to walk. He called into the office at around 3am on his way home.
Cameras show a man behind a pillar outside the bank at 2.59am. He took a couple of steps forward and spoke briefly to Trevor before the bank worker went inside.
Two other men then arrived. They have since been cleared of any involvement in his disappearance, but the so-called ?man in the shadows? has never come forward.
Trevor was last seen on CCTV at 4.14am being followed by a man half-running in his direction who gardai believe is the same person who was standing outside the bank. To this day the family has no idea what happened to Trevor, the youngest of four children, and Mark says wild speculation on social media does not help.
He revealed: ?When he was missing a few years people were saying, ?Ah sure that lad is gone, he has to be dead?.
?Maybe they are right but until we know for certain I think we owe it to Trevor to keep searching for what those answers might be.
?It?s like he vanished into thin air. He was 22, just starting out his life. He?d be 42 now. I don?t know how many kids he?d have, or if he?d have kids.
?You don?t think about it too much because it would drive you mad? but it?s just always there.
?My wife Denise was pregnant with our eldest when he went missing. She?s 19 now, he?s never seen her. My brother has nine nieces and nephews that he?s never seen.?
Trevor, from Naas in Co Kildare, was described as a hard worker and popular colleague and was rising up the ranks at the bank. Speculation he had travelled to Alaska to be with a girl from Anchorage, who he had met in Dublin and had recently visited, was quickly discounted.
Detectives also dismissed the theory he?d stumbled into the Grand Canal or River Dodder and drowned because his mobile phone remained active.
Trevor had his phone on him when he vanished and it continued ringing for several days when family and friends tried to reach him. And suggestions he had taken his own life were quickly dismissed by all those who knew him as a happy and sociable young man who was making plans for the future.
In 2019, a new witness came forward saying Trevor had come in contact with a well-known criminal and was accidentally shot after an altercation. Detectives were told that, after he was shot dead, the killer panicked and dumped his body in a drain on Old Lucan Road.
A six-week dig in the autumn of 2018 at a site in Chapelizod uncovered a gun and drugs, but no body. Gardai later stated the firearm was not linked to the case.
Late last year, the Irish Prison Service began displaying posters in jails, in both inmates? and visiting areas, appealing for information in the case. Mark said: ?Somebody knows something, it?s a terrible cliche but it?s the truth.
?Mam and dad are getting older.
It doesn?t get any easier. They?re in good health, but their youngest son is missing. To find out what happened would mean everything, absolutely everything. If something sinister happened, if there?s some shred of decency in anyone?
?We?re 20 years waiting to find out what happened. Me and my two sisters will keep fighting and searching for another 20.?
Anyone with any information that might help Trevor?s family find out what happened is asked to contact Crimestoppers at 1800 250025.