BODY parts discovered in Dublin after a shocking gangland killing belong to a 17-year-old boy from Drogheda, gardaí have confirmed.
Keane Mulready-Woods had been reported missing since Sunday by his family who had made frantic appeals for information on Facebook.
The teenager had been on the periphery of a long-running feud between two drug gangs that previously claimed the lives of two people.
A murder investigation was launched after parts of limbs were found in a sports bag which had been left in the Coolock estate in Dublin on Monday.
They were being forensically examined to identify the victim.
In the early hours of yesterday a severed head was also discovered in a burnt-out car in Trinity Terrace in Drumcondra in Dublin's Northside.
The teenager was said to have been formally warned by gardaí that his life was in danger days before he went missing.
The Garda Technical Bureau, the office of the state pathologist and the coroner were all notified as was Forensic Science Ireland.
A house in Drogheda was sealed off for examination as part of the investigation.
The chief suspect is a notorious Dublin criminal involved in multiple feuds in Drogheda and Dublin, who had been forced out of Coolock because of threats from rival gangsters.
He is suspected of organising the dumping of the teen's mutilated body parts in Moatview as a grim warning to rivals in the capital.
Auxiliary Bishop of Armagh Michael Router last night said the news had "shocked people to their very core".
"All human life is sacred and an attack of this nature on someone who is still a child is disgusting and beyond belief," he said.
"Enough is enough. The reprehensible sub-culture in our society which views all human life as expendable, including the lives of children, must be defeated. Such gangs are grooming children and we need now to take back control so that such vulnerable children can be cherished, not exploited."
He also repeated an offer to liaise between those who are feuding.
"From the bottom of my heart, I ask individuals and communities to stand together and cooperate with gardaí in every way possible to help permanently bring to an end this cycle of bloody violence in our community."
Fine Gael Dublin TD Paschal Donohoe said: "I want to acknowledge that within my own constituency I do have experience of the cycle of terror, of the cycle of fear that organised crime can bring.
"This is the reason why minister Charlie Flanagan has ensured we are recruiting 700 gardaí per year and it's the reason we've resourced the armed emergency unit to make sure they have the capacity to respond back to organised crime.
"In my own constituency of Dublin Central, we have seen the ability of those kinds of changes, combined with community investment, to deal with the kind of terror."
The victim's sister, Courtney Mulready, had made an appeal for his whereabouts on social media after he stopped answering calls and texts on Sunday night.
On Wednesday she posted a picture of her brother with the message, "You are so special in my life that I know no other person will be able to take your place my brother."
A taxi driver also narrowly escaped death in Drogheda on Monday after being shot twice when he was caught up in a gun attack aimed at a passenger.
The attack happened on the Bridge of Peace in Drogheda shortly after 6.20pm when a number of shots were fired at a taxi from a car that was then driven from the scene.
