John Sweetman

They examined the rusty knife and what appeared to be a garden spade.

There was no identification with the remains.

Early the next morning, the bones were confirmed to be human.

Deputy State Pathologist Dr. Michael Curtis and Anthropologist Dr. Lorian Buckley examined the scene.

Buckley noted that although the bones weren't buried, the dense trees and thick grass easily hid the remains in the undergrowth.

The soft terrain had caused them to sink into the ground as the body decomposed.

Without an identification or cause of death, the remains were moved to Dublin City Morgue for a post-mortem.

As word got out that unidentified remains had been found, Gardaí locally and nationwide started to go back through their records for missing people.

Unsolved case files were pulled out as the network of Garda divisions waited for a possible identification.

The press too would spring into life, their thoughts drifting to the unsolved cases of the 1990s linked to Operation Trace, a Garda inquiry set up to examine whether a number of missing women cases were connected, cases that would later become known as the Vanishing Triangle.

Over at Roundwood Garda Station, Garda James O'Donoghue couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.

The items that were sitting in his evidence locker were disturbing him.

He decided to head down to Vertry Reservoir.

He climbed down onto the exposed bed and waded out through the thick silt and mud, testing each step as he moved further in.

He searched the area carefully, but he found nothing.

The following morning, Dr. Michael Curtis' post-mortem was underway.

He noted that 65% of the person's remains had been found, the remaining bones likely taken by animals.

Moss growth indicated that the remains had been exposed to sunlight and water after sinking into the soft, wet ground of the dense undergrowth.

The bones present showed no trauma and although there was no soft tissue or organs left, marrow still existed within the bones.

It was a clear indication that the remains had been there no more than two years.