The site dug up by Gardai at Cashelard
A former leading Garda has slammed an operation which dug up a site using a JCB as part of the search for the body of Mary Boyle.
A leading geophysical company, Scantech, believed they had identified an area, which may have contained a body at Cashelard on the outskirts of Ballyshannon.
The company was due to hand its full report to Gardai last week.
But officers moved into the site last Wednesday and dug up a quarter acre site using a JCB.
After digging for a day, the search was completed with found nothing.
However, retired Garda Sgt Alan Bailey, who worked with the Serious Crime Unit, said a much more thorough search should have been carried out.
In fact, he said an archeological-type dig using scraping tools should have checked every inch of soil.
“I have never heard of a JCB being used in a search for a shallow graver. In fact it would just be about the last thing you would use,” he said.
Gardai told Donegal Daily they are not making any comment on the latest dig for the six year old who went missing 36 years ago.