Search to begin for the remains of Sunderland soldier Robert Nairac nearly 50 years after his murder by the IRA

Sunderland-raised Captain Robert Nairac was executed on May 15, 1977, after he was kidnapped from a Catholic pub while working undercover during Northern Ireland’s bloody Troubles.

While six men were eventually convicted of their part in his murder, no-one has revealed what happened to the Grenadier Guard’s body.

Investigators have also repeatedly discounted rumours that the 28-year-old military intelligence officer’s corpse was fed to an industrial mincer.

The Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains (ICLVR), which has recovered the bodies of 13 of the Troubles’ so-called Disappeared, instead believes his remains are buried in vast County Louth countryside across the Republic of Ireland border.

The ICLVR has now confirmed on Monday that a search will shortly be carried out in the Faughart area of County Louth.

While a preliminary examination of forest land was carried out in 2019, this will be the first official search for his remains.

Jon Hill, the lead investigator of the ICLVR, confirmed: "We believe that we do now have sufficient credible information to warrant a search.”

It will take place on private land with Mr Hill stressing that neither the landowner nor the tenant have any connection with the decision to search that location.

"The area itself is relatively small, less than one acre, and farmland is inherently more stable than the bogland we have had to work on in other searches for the Disappeared," he said.

"And so, while the weather is always a factor we have to deal with, I would hope that we will get a relatively clear run at this one."

Mr Hill said the search will continue until they have found the remains or are satisfied there is nothing there to find.

"We are not time-limited but given the relatively small area, by our standards, I do not anticipate a protracted search period of many months," he said.

"The Nairac family have been told that a search is about to commence and we will of course keep them informed of any developments."

He added: "I am not going to put a number on the degree of confidence that we have that we will find the remains of Robert Nairac but what I can say is that if they are there we have the skills, ability and experience to find them."

Captain Nairac, whose family lived in Thornhill Gardens, off Tunstall Road, Ashbrooke, reputedly sang Republican songs in the Three Steps pub, in Dromintee, South Armagh, on May 14, 1977, before he was abducted and executed across the border the following morning after his behaviour aroused suspicion.

His pistol and traces of his hair and blood were recovered as evidence with one of his murderers later admitting in court: “He never told us anything. He was a great soldier.”

He is one of only four of the so-called Disappeared whose remains have still to be recovered.