Father of missing Willie Maughan says crucial info given to gardai that led to new search site in recent days
EXCLUSIVE: Joe Maughan says suspected killer Cornelius Price would not have made a deathbed confession and would only speak to the devil
The father of missing man Willie Maughan says he believes someone has finally told gardai crucial information that led them to the search site in North Dublin.
Gardai are continuing to search an area adjacent to land once owned by dead mobster Cornelius Price for the bodies of murdered couple Willie (34) and his pregnant partner Anastasija (Anna) Varslavane - who are believed to have been brutally murdered by him in April 2015.
On Monday officers were seen once again combing the site and taking away evidence bags as hopes grow that their bodies may finally be found.
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And speaking exclusively to The Irish Mirror, Willie’s heartbroken father Joe said he has hope that they will now be found - after something crucial was said to gardai in recent weeks that led to this search.
“There’s always hope. The police are doing the best for us, they’re not giving up and if it won’t happen for us here hopefully it will happen somewhere else.
“I know there was something said to the police. Not to us, but the police. We’re hoping they’ve said the right things and hit the jackpot this time,” he told us.
Joe said he is also pleading at this time for anyone with any further information to come forward and say what they know - unlike Price - who he believes took his secrets to his grave.
“This is what all this was about. We’re pleading with people if someone knows something, say it. Don’t take it to the grave like the other fella did.
“I am hoping someone might say something. We are hoping someone might have said something positive this time.”
Price died from a brain disease in a Welsh Hospital in February 2023 - and never confessed his involvement in the couple’s murder.
Joe says he doesn’t buy that Price turned to God in his final days - and said if he spoke to anyone - it was the devil.
“He wouldn’t have confessed. He’d take that to hell with him.
“Do you think he turned to God? I don’t think so. There’s only one man he’d turn to and that’s the fella with the horns,” he said.
Speaking about how gardai informed him of the new search Joe added:
“I was rang one of the mornings there, I think it was last Thursday to say the police will be onto you. They came down to me within the hour and told me they’re doing a search out in Balbriggan and that’s it.”
Speaking about what it would mean to finally find his son’s body after years of pleading for information Joe said: “It will bring us where we know where he will be. We’ll finally know we can go up and see the grave and know where he is. Right now we don’t know where they are.
“That site at the minute is important and hopefully something will come out of it. It won’t be for lack of trying by the gardai. Myself and the wife said prayers for the guards that this will bring closure to us at the minute.”
Gardaí intensified their search of open lands in north county Dublin connected with the disappearance of the couple who were last seen nine years ago on April 14, 2015.
The case was upgraded to a murder investigation following a review in September 2016.
The couple had been living in a caravan in Gormanston, Co Meath and were planning on moving back to Willie’s family home in Tallaght on the day they went missing.
Gardaí have said that the area of bog land at Ring Commons in Balrothery East in north County Dublin will be searched and subject to excavation, technical and forensic examinations over the coming days.
Investigators have appealed to anyone with any information, no matter how small or insignificant they might believe it to be, to contact Ashbourne Garda Station on 01 8010600 or any garda station.
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