POLICE investigating the brutal murder of a popular teenager more than 20 years ago arrested a 49-year-old man yesterday.
Jonathan Cairns, from Ballykelly, Co Derry, was just 18 when he was savagely beaten and his body disposed of in a shallow grave.
He was attacked as he made his way home from a night out in the early hours of April 25 1999.
Detectives said they arrested the man in the Coleraine area on suspicion of murder, withholding information and perverting the course of justice.
He was taken to Coleraine police station for questioning.
Jonathan Cairns was beaten about the head and then stripped of his clothing and bundled into a car before being driven into a lonely spot at Loughermore Forest where he was partially buried.
A police officer, a cousin of the victim, discovered him during a search operation in a shallow grave 15 hours after he was last seen alive.
The investigation into his murder has so far involved more than 2,500 witnesses, statements from almost 900 people and 20 police searches.
In April of this year, the teenager's parents Raymond and Hazel made a fresh appeal for information on the 20th anniversary of his death.
In 2002 Philip Charles Joseph McGroarty, then aged 31 and of Ballykelly, Co Derry, was jailed for five years for helping to conceal the body.
However, no-one has ever been convicted of Jonathan's murder.
