Heartbreaking final photo of Kyran Durnin revealed: Eight-year-old feared murdered smiles next to siblings in sweet photo taken before he disappeared – as mystery over child support payments emerges
The heartbreaking final photo of missing eight-year-old Kyran Durnin has been revealed.
The photo shows Kyran smiling next to his two siblings, almost two years before he was reported missing in August.
Officers have launched a murder investigation into Kyran’s death, despite no body being found.
The last photo of Kyran appeared when it was reported that cChild benefits and social benefits were paid for him even as authorities suspected he had crossed the border north.
Gardaí are investigating how Kyran’s school, as well as representatives from the Child and Family Agency, Tusla, who interviewed the Durnin family, were unaware he was missing.
Kyran Durnin’s heartbreaking final photo (pictured right) has been revealed. It shows the eight-year-old smiling next to his two siblings before he was reported missing in August, with gardaí believing he may have been murdered two years ago.
Gardaí are investigating whether another child was used to pose as missing eight-year-old Kyran Durnin to deceive social services
And despite Tusla officials believing the boy had left the jurisdiction, social services and child benefits continued to be paid by the Department of Social Protection.
The last known photo of Kyran proving he was alive was posted to Facebook by Kyran’s mother Dayla, 24, in April 2022. Kyran was pictured with his two siblings and the photo was captioned: ‘The three that mean the most.’
It was published around the same time the eight-year-old finished attending a primary school in Dundalk, a source claimed.
The source said: ‘Investigators are aware that there was a lot of activity on the page relating to Kyran and it subsequently stopped.
“And it appears the last photo of him was posted around the time he was last seen at the school.
‘But from an investigation point of view, gardaí are not giving a definitive timeline.
“The reason for that is that anything saying that Kyran was definitively missing in 2022 could deter people from coming forward with information about his possible movements after that time.
“But there is information that is publicly available up to a certain time frame and then it starts to disappear.”
A source told the Irish Mail on Sunday that the file on Kyran had been ‘effectively closed’ after Tusla learned his mother Dayla Durnin had moved north.
But gardaí now suspect Kyran was not with his mother when she went missing after being found without her son in Britain.
On Friday evening, Justice Secretary Helen McEntee told RTÉ’s Six One News: ‘We have a young boy who has not been seen for two years. That is not acceptable. That should not be tolerated by anyone. We need to know what happened here.
Dayla Durin, 24, was reported missing along with her son but is now believed to have been found in Britain
Last Wednesday, gardaí upgraded the young boy’s missing person case to murder after receiving information indicating he had died.
“Any agency or individual that failed to do its job must be held accountable.”
Concerns about the schoolboy’s welfare arose more than two years ago after he was found to be living in squalor, but was torn between schools and addresses, making it increasingly difficult to find his location.
A source said: ‘Tusla made a mistake and panicked quite a bit over the summer.
Their visits (to an address where Kyran lived) showed misery, but then it was told that the child was in Northern Ireland.
The social worker handling the case was away at one point, and the person handling the cover at the time believed… when told that Kyran had gone north.”
Kyran was taken out of school in Dundalk in the summer of 2022. Tusla and school authorities at the time believed the missing boy had moved to a school in the north.
The school said it was believed his family was moving and he would not return after June 2022.
This comes after another boy was introduced to social workers, as well as a school, over the summer.
The other boy has now been identified by gardaí. A source told the MoS: ‘Tusla was told Kyran and Dayla had gone north but local gardaí do not believe they ever did so. He kept moving from home and to school and this frustrated his care.
‘Kyran had not been to school for a few years and schools and Tusla were being misled.’
The source said “serious concerns” within Tusla about the case “finally reached gardaí at the end of the summer”.
But they added: ‘At that stage it appeared the child died or was murdered and buried secretly.
“But child benefit and social benefits continued to be paid.”
Tusla said it could not comment on “this sensitive matter” now being investigated by gardaí.
“We will continue to work closely with gardaí and other parties at this time,” it added.