It took almost three weeks of digging in a vast marshy wasteland in north Dublin to find the skeletal remains of three-year-old Daniel Aruebose – the grave where he lay was so shallow that gardaí believe it was dug by hand.
The little boy with huge brown eyes disappeared in the summer of 2021, but nobody reported him missing. Indeed, it has since been revealed that many of his relatives didn't even know he existed. Now, because Daniel's remains were so decomposed, there is a very real fear that we may never know exactly how or why he died.
This week, the head of the Irish child and family agency Tusla admitted that the case was 'absolutely harrowing'. However, Kate Duggan also said that after an internal inquiry, the organisation had uncovered 'no child protection concerns'.
'He was not open to a child protection service,' she told the Government's Public Accounts Committee on Thursday. She also confirmed that the results of the internal review had been sent to the Department of Children, and that she'd 'absolutely support' them being published publicly if it didn't prejudice the ongoing Garda investigation into Daniel's death.
While there is still mystery around how he died, we do know a significant amount of detail about the years that led up to his parents, Maria Aruebose and Ciaran Dirrane, trekking 3km or so from their home in Donabate to an isolated scrub ground in the middle of the night, with Daniel's small body in a holdall bag.