Garda divers brought in to help search for missing Kerry sheep farmer
A CCTV image of Michael Gaine at a local shop in Kenmare.
Garda divers have been brought in to help search for missing Kerry sheep farmer Michael Gaine.
The 56-year-old has not been seen since about noon last Thursday, after he bought a number of items in his local town of Kenmare.
He purchased phone credit at the local Centra at 9.48am and then bought some items in a local store at about 12pm.
Mr Gaine, whose mother Sheila died last month, was last seen leaving the car park of that store, with loud music playing from his stereo.
Described as being about 5ft10in, with a stocky build, brown grey hair and a bushy beard, he was last seen wearing an orange woolly hat, black fleece, blue jeans and black boots.
After leaving the shop, Mr Gaine is understood to have driven to the 1,000-acre farm he owned less than 10 minutes out of town and only a short distance from the Avoca store at Moll’s Gap.
His uncle’s old farm house is on the land, and there is a semi-derelict outhouse nearby. The house where he and his wife Janice live is about 2km away, nearer to the town.
After he failed to return home on Thursday night, the alarm was raised and gardaí started co-ordinating searches for the well-liked and respected farmer.
Alerts for his whereabouts referenced that his family were “concerned for his wellbeing”.
Some 200 or so volunteers joined the search over the weekend, many of whom would have been from the close rural community. Helping them were units of the Irish Coast Guard, Civil Defence, the Kerry Mountain Rescue Team and gardaí.
While there was a focus on the vast swathes of land around the old farmhouse, the building itself has also been the subject of searches, including by sniffer dogs.
Drones with live cameras passing video back to their operators were also used in some of the less accessible areas, sweeping back and forth to see if they could spot Mr Gaine.
Members of the Garda Water Unit arrived in Kenmare on Wednesday. They ended their search of a lake near Molls Gap at around 3.30pm.
The unit of around six divers spent about two hours searching the lake but found nothing of any evidential value.
Local Kerry councillor Dan McCarthy told the : "There is a terrible sense of doom and gloom in the town and area about this.
"It is hanging over all of us. It is so unlike Mike to just head off without telling somebody.
"I have heard the suggestion that he went up north to buy a tractor but if he did, he would have either been seen by now or he would have contacted his family to assure them that he is OK."
Asked for an update on the search, a Garda spokesperson said it could not comment on the specifics of what remains an “ongoing missing person investigation”.
