Name: Robert Laurence Nairac
Case Classification: Endangered Missing
Missing Since: May 14, 1978
Location Last Seen: Drumintee, South Armagh, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
Date of Birth: August 31, 1948
Age: 28 years old
Race: White
Gender: Male
Height: Unknown
Weight: Unknown
Hair Color: Brown
Eye Color: Unknown
Nickname/Alias: Danny McErlaine
Distinguishing Marks/Features: Unknown
Dentals: Available
Fingerprints: Unknown
DNA: Unknown
Clothing: Black donkey jacket, grubby sweater.
Jewelry: Unknown
Additional Personal Items: Unknown
Robert Nairac was a British Army Captain with Grenadier Guards who served four tours of duty in Northern Ireland. His task was to conduct surveillance operations against the IRA. He was unofficially attached to the SAS.
On May 14, 1977, he went to a pub in South Armagh to meet with an informant. He was abducted from the car park of the Three Steps Bar in Drumintee, South Armagh by at least seven members of the Provisional IRA, driven over the border and taken across the border into the Republic of Ireland to a field in Ravensdale, County Louth.
Following a violent interrogation that lasted for over an hour, Nairac was shot dead in the early morning hours of the 15th. He did not admit to his true identity at any time.
A senior IRA figure later said the body ended up in an unmarked grave on farmland, but had to be hastily reburied elsewhere when the farmer complained that wild dogs had dug it up.
He is the only one of more than 700 British soldiers killed in Northern Ireland during the conflict. His remains have never been found.
Nairac is one of nine IRA victims whose graves have never been revealed and who are collectively known as 'The Disappeared'. The cases are under review by the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains.
On 13 February 1979, Nairac was posthumously awarded the George Cross for his conduct during his abduction and murder.
Agency Name: Police Service of Northern Ireland
Agency Contact Person: N/A
Agency Phone Number: 0845 600 8000
Agency E-Mail: info@psni.pnn.police.uk
Agency Case Number: N/A
Times Online
Daily Mail
Wikipedia
Added: 6-23-2008; Last Updated: 08-23-2021 - By: Htmlcnvtr
Questions or comments? Please contact appropriate member of the Area Team
** Listed information is from the time of disappearance.
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