The four year ordeal of an Irish family torn apart by grief over their missing father has come to an end.
According to the Irish Mirror the skeletal remains of the missing man were found in an abandoned house, prompting the man's son to speak to the press of his horror at discovering he had passed the property every day for years never realizing his father lay dead inside.
John Byrne was last seen on February 13, 2009 after leaving his home in Finglas on Dublin’s north side to meet his friends in town.
The house where the body is believed to have been found in Phibsboro
But then Byrne vanished without trace and his fate remained a mystery for four agonizing years until his remains were discovered in July.
A skeleton was reportedly discovered at a house near the Royal Canal Way in Phibsboro, less than three miles from where he lived.
Irish police were mystified by the identity of the grim discovery and released some details of the clothes and a watch found on the body in the hope of identifying the corpse.
Son Darren Feehan reportedly recognized the items immediately as belonging to his missing father, bringing to an end four years of agonizing uncertainty.
Investigators believe Byrne, who would be 47 now, went into the derelict house to keep warm and died of natural causes.
Feehan told the press his only comfort was that John wasn’t murdered. The 26-year-old added that he had passed the spot where his father lay dead a few times a day, not knowing he was inside.
'The hardest part is thinking we pulled the whole country apart when he was just a few miles away from us all along,' said Feeghan.
'I passed that house three or four times a day going to college, going to meet my friends, never knowing he was there all along.
'I searched everywhere in Phibsboro and one day shortly after he went missing I actually sat in a park opposite that house for hours just crying and wondering where he could be or what could have happened.
'He went there and died alone. He must have been so lonely but there was no foul play and that’s one small bit of comfort I have.
'I’ll never get over that but it could have been worse, he could have been murdered. The circumstances of how he was found are irrelevant. All that matters is somehow my dad ended up dead in that house and I have accepted we’ll never really know why.
'We firmly believe he had no reason to take his own life, he wouldn’t have done this on purpose,' he added.
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