'She died with his name still on her lips' – Matthew Carroll's family appeal for answers on the 25th anniversary of his disappearance

Mum’s last wish was for her son’s remains to be found and laid to rest in the family grave

Matthew Carroll went missing on June 8, 1998, after he had been celebrating with his local soccer team in Limerick

Jimmy Woulfe

January 25 2023 02:30 AM

The mother of a missing man made a deathbed plea that his body be found and laid alongside her in the family grave.

Matthew Carroll went missing when he was out celebrating with his local soccer team in Limerick in 1998.

Gardaí believe he was abducted by a notorious Limerick crime family and his body placed under new foundations at a building site in the city.

As the 25th anniversary of his disappearance approaches, his only brother, Seamus Carroll, spoke of the heartache experienced by their mother Theresa before she died.

“Right up to the end, my mother only talked [about] and wanted Matthew. She was 84 and in the early stages of dementia. When I’d call to see her in the nursing home, all she’d talk about was Matthew. There were only the two of us – Matthew, who was older, and myself.

“She died with Matthew’s name still on her lips. After he went missing she put up a little shrine to him in our home and would spend hours there every day offering prayers for Matthew’s safe return.

“My dad, Jim, died years earlier and Matthew lived at home with our mum, Theresa. He was well known in pubs where he did DJ sets.

“As she passed away, she pleaded with me to continue the search for Matthew so he could have a decent burial alongside Dad and her in the family grave in Mount St Oliver.

‘After Matthew went missing she put up a little shrine to him in our home and would spend hours there every day offering prayers for his safe return’

“Although she was in the early stages of dementia, she still had her faculties.

“When I’d call she knew me, but kept asking about Matthew and if there had been any news. She was still asking in her last breath about Matthew.”

Matthew Carroll was last seen alive at the Steering Wheel pub, Roxboro Shopping Centre, Limerick, on June 8, 1998.

Gardaí believe Mr Carroll, who was 30, was abducted by a Limerick criminal family because they feared he may have overheard something.

Seamus Carroll, renewing an appeal for information about his brother’s disappearance, said: “Some people said that he was bundled into a van after he left a pub, or else he was abducted as he walked home from the pub where he was celebrating Carew Park’s win in the Lawson Cup. Whatever happened, he never made it home.

“Matthew never got into trouble with the guards. Something sinister happened that night.

“All I want now is to fulfil my mother’s dying wish: find his body and give him a decent burial. Anybody with information could contact a priest or me or the Garda confidential line.”