With pupils returning to the classroom this week, it is perhaps even more poignant that tomorrow marks one year to the day that schoolboy Kyran Durnin was first reported missing.
On 30 August 2024, Kyran, who would now be nine years old, was reported missing from his home in Drogheda, Co Louth.
The harrowing details and extraordinary events that would unfold in the case over the following year would leave everyone stunned and with more questions than answers.
Gardaí have since taken more than 570 separate investigative actions in relation to Kyran's disappearance and murder, and have combed through more than 29,500 hours of CCTV footage in their efforts to locate the child. Yet, the mystery continues.
This time last year, extensive inquiries began that led detectives to believe that Kyran was missing for a lot longer than the originally reported 48-hour period.
By October, Kyran was thought to no longer just be missing; he was now deemed by gardaí to be missing presumed dead.
A timeline of what sources have described as Kyran’s "chaotic" childhood was established.
Images of the smiley schoolboy, which had been taken in June 2022 and were subsequently discovered on a mobile phone, led gardaí to start working under the assumption that he may not have made it past the age of six.
It is understood that around the same time, Kyran’s school was told that he would not be returning after the summer holidays and instead would be going to live in Northern Ireland. However, there is no evidence to suggest that he ever moved north of the border.
Read more: New appeal issued over missing schoolboy Kyran Durnin
At the heart of this case is a young schoolboy who should be enjoying some of life’s happiest years.
However, as Kyran’s disappearance garnered growing national and international attention, wider societal questions began to be asked.
Not only how could a child go missing for more than two years, but how could a child be missing for so long without anyone in authority noticing?
Despite the last confirmed sighting of Kyran being in or around June 2022, Tusla, the child and family agency, said it had received no referral in relation to any concerns about his welfare between that year and 2024.
The agency also said that while Kyran was not in its care, it had engaged with him and his family.
This day last year, Tusla alerted gardaí to a significant concern about Kyran. One day before, he was formally reported missing.
Gardaí have to date arrested two people and searched three houses and gardens linked to Kyran.
As the first search began at the former Durnin family home at Emer Terrace in Dundalk on a warm and sunny morning last October, locals in the area questioned how a boy so young could be missing for so long.
Gardaí stressed that the current tenants living at the property, located on the busy Castletown Road, were in no way connected to their investigation.
Meanwhile, those shopping or stopping in for a bite to eat down the town that week asked each other if they had heard about the case and tried to process the shock that Kyran’s disappearance had caused - the same sense of shock that was starting to grip the country.
The first arrest in the investigation came last December. A woman, aged in her 20s, had been abroad for a period of time but was arrested within the jurisdiction on suspicion of murder.
It is understood that this woman was known to Kyran and had been a person of interest in the case for some time, and that gardaí had also spoken to her on a number of previous occasions.
Later the same week, a man was arrested as gardaí also carried out an "intrusive" search at a property and its adjoining gardens in a housing estate in Drogheda.
Both the woman and the man were subsequently released without charge.
However, the investigation then took another dark turn as gardaí confirmed that this man had been found dead at his home in Drogheda just days after his release.
He was named locally as 36-year-old Anthony Maguire, and gardaí said they were treating the matter as a "personal tragedy," and not looking for anyone else in connection with his death.
It is understood that he left a note, but it is not believed to have made any reference to Kyran.
A further search took place in February of this year and focused on the back garden of a different property - this time one located on a narrow residential street in Drogheda.
During the course of this three-day search operation, Kyran's father, who is not a suspect in the investigation, arrived outside the property and, understandably, became visibly upset.
The results of all three searches - the one in Dundalk and two in Drogheda - were not released for operational purposes. However, it is understood that nothing of major significance was discovered by gardaí.
The heads of the two main State agencies tasked with establishing the circumstances in the lead-up to and aftermath of Kyran’s disappearance have been left perplexed by the case.
Garda Commissioner Drew Harris, who steps down from his role on Sunday after 40 years as a police officer at various ranks, said that in all his career he "has never seen a set of circumstances" like those in the case of the missing schoolboy.
The commissioner also added that there is a "particular element" to the case that is "difficult to comprehend".
Meanwhile, Tusla Chief Executive Kate Duggan described the case as "absolutely horrific" and said it has "shocked all of us to our core".
Ms Duggan also said it was important to highlight that "everybody needs to be mindful of child protection or risks ... whether that's family members, extended family members, communities, neighbours".
"If concerns are there, they should be raised at all times with Tusla in relation to responding," she also told an Oireachtas committee earlier this summer.
Tusla has previously conducted an internal review into its interactions with Kyran and his family.
A separate report requested in relation to the information held by Tusla’s Education Support Service (TESS) was also completed.
The reports have been shared with the Department of Children and the Department of Education, respectively, but both have never been published owing to the live garda investigation.
However, then education minister and now Minister for Children Norma Foley, has since been pursuing "tightening up things" with her counterpart in Northern Ireland to increase ongoing cross-border cooperation in relation to child welfare and protection.
Almost a year to the day that Kyran was first reported missing, gardaí have renewed their appeal for anyone with any information on the case to come forward.
A spokesperson said: "An Garda Síochána is aware of the extensive public commentary on this investigation, including speculation, rumours and theories on what may have happened to Kyran.
"An Garda Síochána continue to appeal to the public, notwithstanding all the information that is in the public domain, to not assume that the investigation team know the information that you may have.
"Any information, no matter how insignificant it may seem, will be welcomed by the investigation team. This information will be treated in the strictest confidence."
The garda investigation team can be contacted at Drogheda Garda Station on 041 987 4200, the Garda Confidential Line at 1800 666 111, or through any garda station.
Most nine-year-olds will typically be putting on their new school uniforms this morning, saying goodbye to their parents at the school gate, meeting their friends in the school playground and beginning their second day of the new school year.
However, for now at least, where Kyran is or what happened to him still very much remains a mystery.
