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Story Notes
The family of an Irishman who went missing in Australia 27 years ago believe the time is right for people who know what happened to him to come forward. Police who worked on the original missing persons case believe Gerard Mooney was killed in the Sydney suburb of Marrickville in May of 1996. The Documentary On One: Missing Gerard tells the story of how the 36 year old from Glasnevin in Dublin simply vanished from near his home in Sydney leaving very few clues as to what had happened.
Gerard was keen cyclist and cycled to work regularly. His custom built racing bike was found less than a mile from his home but there has been no sign of him since. An extensive search was launched by New South Wales police into Gerard's disappearance but apart from his racing bike, nothing was ever found.
Now the police officers who worked on the case say enough time has passed for someone who knows something to come forward. Gerard Mooney’s sister Rita travelled to Australia at the time of her brothers disappearance in 1996 and says that the neighbourhood he lived in had many people whose first language wasn’t English and at the time might have been wary of Police enquiries. She’s hoping that given the passage of time people might be in a better place to reveal the secret of her brother’s disappearance.
Rita Mooney contacted the Garda Missing Persons Unit in Ireland in 2019 and a sample of her DNA was sent to Australia to try and find a match from the newly established Australian national DNA database of long term missing persons , their relatives and unidentified human remains. There are said to be up to 500 sets of unidentified remains in Australia and more are being added as soon as they are discovered. There are 2,600 long term missing persons in Australia. Rita reveals how her DNA sample will now be kept and cross checked if any new sets of remains are discovered.
Narrated and Produced by Tim Desmond.
First broadcast on RTÉ Radio 1, 2PM, Saturday 7th October 2023
An Irish radio documentary from RTÉ Radio 1, Ireland - Documentary on One - the home of Irish radio documentaries
Story Credits