Search called off for the remains of Colmuba McVeigh was abducted and murdered by the IRA in 1975

THE sixth search for the remains of a young man kidnapped and murdered by the IRA nearly 40 years ago has been called off.

The body of Columba McVeigh, from Dungannon, Co Tyrone, is believed to have been buried in bogland in Co Monaghan following his abduction and brutal killing.

The Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains (ICLVR), which was set to look for the remains of ‘The Disappeared’, confirmed on Monday that the search at Bragan Bog, near Tydavnet, had stopped.

It was the sixth time a search had been carried out for the remains of the 19-year-old, who vanished in November 1975 without trace.

The IRA claimed Mr McVeigh was a security force informer.

However, his family have refuted the allegation, especially his mother, Vera, who died in May 2007, aged 82, without being able to bury her son.

The remains of six other victims, including Captain Robert Nairac, a British soldier kidnapped by the IRA in 1977, have still to be found.

Mr McVeigh’s brother Oliver said on Monday: “There are people out there who have the information and they haven’t come forward and I can’t understand why.

“They have nothing to gain by keeping their secret and nothing to lose by telling the Commission what they know. They know that the information is confidential.

“Why do they continue to torture a family like this?”

Columba’s sister, Dympna, said: “Our mother went to her grave unable to tend the grave of her son.

“If the people who know where Columba is buried could have seen what that did to my mother, if they could imagine their own mother in that position, they could not stay silent if they had any human feelings at all.

“I would like to look them in the eye and ask them ‘Do you know what you have done?’ Let us bring Columba home and end this torment.”