THE BODY of a man discovered on a beach in Anglesey in 1983 has finally been identified as missing Irishman Conor Whooley.
Whooley from Greystones in County Wicklow went missing from Dublin back in 1983.
He was 24 at the time of his disappearance.
Conor’s body was identified when his mother contacted Gardaí after watching an episode of RTÉ’s Crime Call featuring an appeal for families of long-term missing persons to compare DNA samples to unidentified bodies.
His previously unidentified body had been buried in an unmarked grave Menai Bridge Cemetery on Anglesey prior to being exhumed in 2013.
North Wales Police unearthed his remains six years ago in the hopes they would prove to be a match for another missing person.
While that did not prove to be the case, the contact initiated by the Whooley family prompted a new round of testing on the remains.
Conor’s body was exhumed as part of Operation Orchid – an initiative set up to solve cold cases involving unidentified human remains.
His brother Seán, told RTE News of the sense of closure the news offered, particularly to his mother, who is still alive, meaning she was "able to see the end of the story".
"We always expected a call, but as the years went on – 35, 36 years – we never really expected anything," Whooley said.
Det Con Don Kenyon said: "I hope that this positive news will encourage other families of missing people to provide DNA samples to help solve other outstanding cases in North Wales and beyond."
