GARDAI have been joined by soldiers in the marshland search for missing Co Louth teen Ciara Breen.
More than 60 members of the Defence Forces yesterday too part in the three week old search for the 17-year-old who vanished from her Dundalk home in 1997.
The soldiers, who belong to the 27th Infantry Battalion at Aiken Barracks in Dundalk, are taking part in Garda efforts to comb Balmer’s Bog, off the Ardee Road, in the hopes of finding Ciara’s remains.
Gardaí believe that the teen, who was an only child, was murdered after leaving her home in the middle of the night to meet a man and that her body was hidden in the isolated marshland on the outskirts of the town.
Ciara’s mother Bernadette has repeatedly called for the public’s help in helping to find out what happened to her daughter after she left the Bachelor’s Walk home they shared on February 13 1997.
The Garda search was prompted by anonymous information received by gardaí late last year.
A man in his 60s from Dundalk was arrested last week on suspicion of withholding information from Gardaí but was later released without charge.
In April, a man in his 50s, who is also from the town, was held for questioning before released without charge. A file is being prepared for the Republic’s Director of Public Prosecutions.
