The family of a south Armagh man believed to be one of the 'disappeared', yesterday (Tuesday) began a fresh dig for his remains in Co Monaghan.
Charlie Armstrong went missing on his way to Mass in Crossmaglen on August 16 1981. A gardai search at Iniskeen, Co Monaghan, for the body was unsuccessful in May last year, but now the family has decided to begin a fresh search of the site.
A spokesman for the Commission for the Disappeared yesterday confirmed it had not received any new information.
Gardai said they were aware of the fresh search, but were not involved.
Although he does not appear on the IRA's list of the disappeared, Mrs Kathleen Armstrong is convinced her husband was abducted and murdered by the Provisional IRA.
"The IRA has never admitted they took him but who else would do it? They have denied everything else over the years and then came out with it. Nobody else would do it, only them," she said last night.
An unsuccessful dig was carried out by gardai at a site three miles from the border in May 2002 after the IRA provided information to the Independent Commission for the Location of Victim's Remains.
However, the Armstrong family felt a larger area should have been excavated and has taken the decision to dig an "additional" piece of land.
"It is a very wet place, smaller than the area that was dug the last time. We got permission from the landowner and brought a digger in on Monday night. We started digging yesterday and my two sons have been down there all day," Mrs Armstrong said.
The widow said it was hoped the dig would be completed by the end of the week, depending on the weather.
"We are hopeful rather than confident, it was to satisfy ourselves," she added.
Mrs Armstrong said her wish was to give her husband a "proper, Christian funeral at the end of my days" and appealed for those who originally provided information to the commission to do so again.
"The waiting and wondering is hard. You hope and pray for success and that whoever came forward with information would give us some more because someone knows where he was put."
A commission spokesman said it had received "no new information" and that the gardai had excavated a well-defined area in 2002.
The land being excavated in Iniskeen is close to where the bodies of John McClory and Brian McKinney were found in June 1999.
Four years ago the IRA admitted it had "disappeared" nine people in the 1970s, killing and burying their bodies in unmarked graves in the Republic.
The paramilitary grouping also gave a commitment to help locate the bodies of their victims and so far three families have been able to give their loved ones the Christian burial they longed for.
However, no-one knows the real number of deaths on the disappeared list.
Earlier this year, Armagh man Gareth O'Connor disappeared and it is believed he was murdered by the IRA. His body has never been found.
On Monday the family of 37-year-old mother-of-ten Jean McConville received DNA confirmation that a body found on a beach near Carlingford in Co Louth on August 27 was that of their mother.
It is understood she is to be buried next week.
