(few lines of the article respectfully bolded by me for importance)
8 JUL 2015 -
'We know he's dead but we need closure': Heartbroken sister of missing Tony Donnellan's appeal 20 years on
The heartbroken sister of a man who vanished two decades ago has pleaded for information to end her family’s suffering.
Tony Donnellan, who was 29 when he disappeared, had left his home on a small farm in West Clare to start a new life in London almost a decade earlier.
He seemed to be happy and was making plans for his future when his sister Dolores met him in Leicester Square just days before he vanished in October 1995.
When she was told Tony was missing, Dolores, who also moved to the English capital when she was 21 in 1990, presumed her happy-go-lucky brother had just gone off to visit friends.
But 20 years on, the Donnellan family still have no idea what happened to him.
Their mother Peggy died 11 years ago, tortured to the grave by the mystery of what became of her youngest son. Their dad is now 86 and in a nursing home in their native Kilrush.
And while they’ve long accepted Tony is dead, they have no idea if he took his own life or if something more sinister happened.
But speaking exclusively to the Irish Mirror from her home in Lanzarote, Dolores said: “no one can disappear into thin air”.
Fighting back tears, the 46-year-old - revealed: “We don’t believe he’s alive – especially because of mam. They were so close and he’d never have let her suffer and die without saying goodbye.
“We just don’t know and we need closure. We want to give him a proper burial. You can’t bury your own body so someone knows something. I won’t let him be forgotten.”
Tony came out as gay to his siblings and even though he never had the courage to tell his parents,
he had a partner in London.
He and Dolores used to meet up once a week and the last night she ever saw him they had dinner and then went to see Braveheart in the cinema.
It’s a night she has played over and over again in her head in a desperate attempt to recall anything that might give her a clue as to what became of Tony.
The family even hired a private detective when the police case hit a brick wall - but there hasn’t been a single lead.
And now almost 20 years on, Dolores is appealing to anyone with even the smallest snippet of information to come forward.
She said: “When I look back, I feel I could have done more. I should have asked more questions.
“The only thing that still niggles me is that his back was bad.
He had fallen off his bike and that was annoying him.
He was more subdued than normal.”
It was Tony’s ex boyfriend who reported him missing and when cops searched his house, the only thing they found was an
envelope with £1,000 inside with Dolores’ name written on it.
She told the Irish Mirror: “The money in the envelope was weird but that’s all there was. Bizarrely mum rang from home just after I heard Tony was missing and she just said she had a weird feeling that something was wrong.
“
He spoiled mum and was always bringing her presents,
they were so close.
“It was really hard on her. She kept thinking he’d come back some day.
“I was at home for six weeks with her when she was dying and she kept asking for him. She kept saying she might see him up in heaven.”
She added: “It’s torture, it’s horrible. He was such a good guy.
'We know he's dead but we need closure': Heartbroken sister of missing Tony Donnellan's appeal 20 years on
