Brother of missing Derry man John Concannon believes remains may be those of lost sibling

Leon Concheanainn said he spent most of Saturday at the site of the discovery and that while the body has not been formally identified, he thinks it’s probably his late brother.

“There was a checked shirt and he had been wearing a checked shirt when he went missing,” said Mr. Concheanainn.

“We’re not sure, for definite. He might have to go up to Belfast tomorrow.”

Mr. Concannon went missing almost exactly 16 months ago today.

The 71-year-old, who suffered from dementia, was last seen getting off the Fernabbey bus on the Lenamore Road on November 10, 2015.

The remains discovered on Saturday were just a few hundred yards from where he would have got off.

“He was found almost exactly on the border,” said Mr. Concheanainn. “He was about 800 yards up from the bus stop. They found him down in a wee stream.”

He blamed bad fortune for the fact that the body wasn’t discovered earlier.

Hundreds of man hours in searches and the use of dogs all failed to pick anything up until today.

“We’d like to thank everybody who helped with all the searches. It’s been such a long time. I’m actually delighted he’s been found and hopefully it will give the whole family a bit of closure,” said Mr. Concheanainn.