June 6, 2003 Family believe man has been executed
by William Scholes, Irish News

The family of an Armagh man, missing almost a week, believe he is dead and have appealed for his abductors to return the body.

Mark O’Connor blamed Provisional IRA members for abducting his son Gareth (24) and called on them to tell his family “where we can find him”.

“I honestly thought I would have heard something by now,” he said last night.

“I just wish that if he’s not alive that they would tell us where his body is. The way we’re thinking now is that Gareth has been murdered.”

The O’Connor family believe father-of-two Gareth was ambushed as he crossed the south Armagh border on Sunday morning as he drove to Dundalk.

He was due to report to Dundalk Garda station as part of bail conditions having been charged in the Republic last November with membership of the Real IRA. He was next due to appear in court in January 2004.

A dispute over a pyramid scheme which collapsed in Armagh last September is believed to lie at the centre of Mr O’Connor’s disappearance.

A family friend said Mr O’Connor, who had put money into the failed scheme, had “stepped on toes” by asking questions about the investment scam, which was masterminded by a member of the Provisional IRA.

Mr O’Connor’s eldest son, Caolan (5), is “asking about his daddy”, Mark O’Connor said.

“We took Caolan to the circus the other night to keep him away from all that’s going on. He is asking about his daddy and why he hasn’t come home,” he said.

Mr O’Connor’s other son, 15-month-old Owen, “doesn’t really understand what’s going on”, Mark O’Connor said.

“It’s a huge strain on us all. If only we knew one way or another, it would at least be something,” he said.

“The people who did this are animals, there’s no other way to describe them.”

The Provisional IRA earlier this week issued a statement denying any involvement in or knowledge of Mr O’Connor’s disappearance, a claim repeated by Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness.