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Gardaí investigating the disappearance and double murder of William Maughan (35) and Anastasija Varslavane (21) began a search of open lands in north county Dublin on Friday. The searches are part of a long-running investigation since the couple vanished almost decade ago, with seven arrests in the case to date but no criminal charges.
Mr Varslavane, who was from Latvia but was living in Ireland, was pregnant with the couple’s first child at the time. Their families have continually appealed for anyone with information to contact gardaí in Ashbourne.
The couple disappeared without trace on April 14th, 2015, and the case was upgraded to a murder investigation following a review in September 2016.
Gardaí believe the couple were abducted, shot dead and their bodies concealed by a Co Louth-based gang led by criminal Cornelius Price, who has since died. Detectives are working on the theory that Price feared Mr Vaughan was about to go to gardaí and implicate him in the 2014 gun murder of Benny Whitehouse.
The 36-year-old was shot on Clonard Street in Balbriggan on September 25th, 2014, shortly after dropping his six-year-old daughter to a nearby national school. His wife was wounded in the same attack, which was linked to an ongoing feud in the area.
Gardaí believe Price planned the abduction and murder of Mr Maughan to ensure his silence and that Ms Varslavane was murdered with her boyfriend because she was with him when he was attacked.
After the murders, Price went on to become one of the main protagonists in the Drogheda gangland feud. It began in 2017 and claimed the lives of four people, with others left with life-changing injuries after surviving gun attacks.
Ms Varslavane and Mr Maughan had been living in a mobile home in Gormanston, Co Meath, but were due to move in with Mr Maughan’s parents in Dublin.
Gardaí said that on the morning of Tuesday, April 14th, 2015, Mr Maughan went to Balbriggan, followed shortly afterwards by Ms Varslavane. They ran some errands and made contact with Mr Maughan’s mother to arrange for her to travel from Tallaght to Gormanston to collect them and their belongings.
Mr Maughan spoke to his mother at about 2.30pm and asked her to collect them at Gormanston. The couple got a taxi from Balbriggan to Gormanston shortly after 2.30pm. Helen Maughan arrived in Gormanston just before 3pm but could not locate her son. She drove to Stamullen to look for him but did not find him. She returned to Gormanston and called his mobile phone but it went straight to the message minder.
The investigation is being carried out by the Serious Crime Unit, Meath Division, led by a senior investigation officer based in an incident room at Ashbourne Garda station.
In a statement on Friday, An Garda Síochána said the family has been kept fully updated in relation to the investigation. The area of land will be searched and subject to excavation and technical and forensic examinations over coming days.
“Given the passage of time since their disappearance, individuals’ personal circumstances may now have changed and people may now be in a position to either speak to investigating gardaí or to provide information now that they may not have been able to provide before,” the Garda added.
A Temporary Restricted Air Space has been put in place by the Irish Aviation Authority in respect of the search area in Co Dublin.
Detectives were hopeful when Price died in the UK in 2023 people with information about the murders of Mr Maughan and Ms Varslavane would come forward. However, as a violent leader of a notorious drugs gang, and with many of his associates still active in the drugs trade, gathering new information has proven difficult.
Price’s gang, known by gardaí as the Price-Maguire organised crime group, was one of the factions in a violent feud in Drogheda which resulted in four murders and dozens of assaults, explosive attacks and other violent incidents. One of those killed was 17-year-old Keane Mulready Woods, who was murdered by rivals of Price in 2020. The teenager’s dismembered remains were later found in two locations in Dublin.
Price was admitted to hospital in Wales in 2021 with limbic encephalitis, a serious brain condition and he died in February, 2023. At the time of his death, he was on bail while awaiting trial in London for his alleged involvement, along with several other men, in a kidnapping and blackmail plot targeting two men.
Three months after he died, Limerick criminal Ger Dundon, a member of the notorious McCarthy-Dundon gang, was jailed 10 years for his role in the same violent abduction of two men in a bid to extort more than £300,000. During the crime Dundon had threatened to “shoot two dudes in the head” if the money was not paid.
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