Car in canal owned by missing man

Gareth O'Connor has been missing since May 2003

Police are working on the assumption that a body found in a car recovered from Newry Canal was that of missing man Gareth O'Connor.

Police confirmed the car was his, but a post mortem examination failed to identify the body and cause of death. Dental records and DNA will be used.

Detectives believe Mr O'Connor, 24, was killed by the IRA. The IRA denied this.

The Armagh man disappeared in May 2003 as he drove south to answer bail conditions in the Irish Republic.

Police said the tests to confirm the body was that of Mr O'Connor would take some time.

Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde said if it was the missing man, it would be a major breakthrough.

"It's one of the things we've been looking for for two years. It certainly reinforces our commitment to bringing this case to a closure," he told Radio Ulster.

Police have been preserving the scene where the car was found

"It will be a very important line of inquiry. It may enable us to take the investigation to the next stage."

The blue Volkswagen Golf was discovered close to Victoria Lock near Newry after a two-day operation involving members of the PSNI's Underwater Search Unit.

The car has been taken away for forensic examination.

Divers returned to the canal on Sunday to carry out a follow-up underwater search.

Mr O'Connor's family also believe he was murdered and have made appeals for information about the location of his body.

The father-of-two was reported missing after he failed to report to Dundalk police station in the Irish Republic as part of his bail conditions on a charge of belonging to an illegal paramilitary group.

He had been charged with membership of the dissident republican Real IRA.

He was last spotted on closed-circuit television pictures driving through the County Armagh village of Newtownhamilton.