The Hidden Dead

Barry Cummins blogs ahead of tonight's programme:

Of the dozens upon dozens of people who are missing in this country, there are at least thirty who have actually been murdered and their bodies hidden.
Those victims include at least 12 cases of people who have been killed and secretly buried by Ireland's criminal gangs.
From the late 1980s to present day - criminals have copied the tactics employed by the IRA in the '70s - abducting, killing and secretly burying people.
Tonight on Prime Time we look at the cases of the Hidden Dead - people who fell foul of criminals and who were never found.
Seven weeks ago Geraldine Noonan bravely spoke out appealing for information about her missing son Ciaran who was last seen being bundled into a car by a gang in Dublin's East Wall.
Geraldine's appeal had a deep impact, and a refocussing of resources combined with confidential information led to the recovery of Ciaran's body in Co. Meath.
But while Ciaran's loved ones have been able to lay him to rest, there are many other families who today do not know wheir their loved ones lie.
One of those families is that of Brooke Pickard - a 42 year old man last seen being abducted by armed and masked men in Co. Kerry in 1991.
Over the last two decades very little has happened in this unsolved case, but now the Garda Cold Case Unit is investigating and tonight one of Brooke's sons - Crohan - speaks publicly for the first time and visits the scene of his father's abduction, and also visits the scene where Brooke's body is believed to be buried, 43 kilometres away deep in the Kerry mountains.
In tonight's special report we highlight how families like the Pickards are not seeking "justice" - they just want the body of their loved one back to bury.
Another powerful interview is with Trudy Carroll. Now 19 years old, she was just a toddler when her father Matthew vanished in Limerick in 1998. The Carrolls don't want anyone to go to jail, they just want Matthew's body home.
Matthew is just one of a number of men who have disappeared in sinister circumstances in Limerick in recent years, and there are many similiar cases in Dublin too.
We know from the bodies which have actually been recovered in recent times that killers hide bodies in fields, rivers, canals, boots of cars, bogland and on open ground.
There is no extra mandatory sentence imposed on killers who go to such extreme lengths to try and evade detection.
The recent work of the Commission for the Location of Victims Remains which provides a prosecution amnesty for those who help recover the bodies of IRA victims has succeeded only because former IRA members have met with the Commission and led them directly to where bodies have been buried. They have done this safe in the knowledge that they will not face prosecution. The recovery of such bodies is clear proof that people with information can still help find bodies even thirty years after a body is hidden.
Is there something we can think of to encourage other people to do the same in non-IRA cases? I don't know the answer, but perhaps we need to start thinking outside the box because there are many families of murder victims still seeking their loved ones body after 5, 10, 20 years. Garda resources are stretched. Perhaps the only way the families will get their loved one back is if someone who knows actually talks.
There are people out there who have the answers, who can help bring an end to the torment of families.
Join us on Prime Time tonight.
Barry Cummins
Prime Time, RTÉ 1, 21:35