Heartbreaking last photo of Kyran Durnin revealed

The heartbreaking last photo of missing eight-year-old Kyran Durnin has been revealed.

The picture shows Kyran smiling next to his two siblings nearly two years before he was reported missing in August.

Officers have launched a murder investigation into Kyran's death - despite no body being found. 

The last photo of Kyran emerged as it was reported that child benefit and welfare payments for him were being paid even as authorities suspected that he had moved across the border into the North.

Gardaí are investigating how Kyran's school, as well as representatives from the Child and Family Agency, Tusla, who interviewed the Durnin family, did not know he was missing.

And despite officials at Tusla believing claims the boy had moved out of the jurisdiction, welfare and child benefits continued to be paid by the Department of Social Protection.

The last known picture of Kyran that proves he was alive was posted on Facebook by Kyran's mum Dayla, 24, in April 2022. Kyran was pictured with his two siblings and the photo was captioned: 'The three who mean the most.' 

It was published around the same time the eight-year-old's attendance at a primary school in Dundalk ended, a source claimed.

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The source said: 'Investigators are aware that there was a lot of activity on the page as regards to Kyran and that it then stopped.

'And it does appear to be the case that the last image of him was posted around the time he was last seen in the school.

'But, from the point of view of the investigation, gardaí are not putting a definitive timeline on it.

'The reason for that is that anything that says Kyran was definitely missing from 2022 might stop people, with information about his possible movements after that time, coming forward.

'But there is information publicly available until a specific time frame and then it starts disappearing.'

A source told the Irish Mail on Sunday that the file on Kyran was 'effectively closed' after Tusla was told his mother Dayla Durnin had moved to the North.

But gardaí now suspect Kyran was not with his mother when she went missing after she was found in the UK without her son. 

On Friday evening, Justice Minister Helen McEntee told RTÉ's Six One news: 'We have a young boy who has not been seen in two years. That's not acceptable. That's not to be tolerated by anyone. We need to know what happened here.

'Any agency or person who has not done their job needs to be held responsible.'

Concerns about the schoolboy's welfare were raised more than two years ago after he was found to be living in squalor, but he was moved between schools and addresses, which made it increasingly difficult to find his location.

A source said: 'Tusla slipped up and fairly panicked over the summer.

Their visits [to an address where Kyran was living] document squalor, but then the visits just stopped and closed when told the child was in Northern Ireland. 

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The social worker dealing with [the case] was off at one point, and the person who was covering at the time believed... when told Kyran had gone North.'

Kyran was taken out of school in Dundalk in the summer of 2022. At the time, Tusla and school authorities believed that the missing boy had moved to a school in the North.

The school has said it was under the impression that his family was moving away, and he would not be returning after June 2022.

This comes after a different boy was presented to social workers, and also to a school over the summer.

The other boy has since been identified by gardaí. A source told the MoS: 'Tusla were told Kyran and Dayla went North, but local gardaí do not believe they ever did. He kept moving house and school and his care was frustrated by this.

'Kyran had not been at school for a couple of years and schools and Tusla were misled.'

The source said 'serious concerns' within Tusla about the case 'finally made it to gardaí at the end of the summer'.

But they added: 'By that stage it looked like the child died or was killed and secretly buried.

'But children's allowance and social welfare payments continued to be paid.'

Tusla said it could not comment on 'this sensitive case' which is now being investigated by gardaí.

'We will continue to work closely with gardaí and other parties as required at this time,' it added.