Body found at Sliabh Liag released to family

The body of the man found dead in the water off Sliabh Liag was released to relatives on Wednesday.

County Tyrone native Robert Wilkin, aged in his late 60s, was recovered from the water off Sliabh Liag in the early hours of Monday, July 3.

Although it has not been said officially by Gardai, the investigation into his death is being treated as a murder.

The body was kept in the morgue at Letterkenny University Hospital, where a post-mortem examination was conducted last Tuesday by the State Pathologist, Dr Linda Mulligan.

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DNA was taken from the his man’s family and Gardai liaised with the National Crime Agency (NCA) in a bid to formally identify the remains.

Donegal Live understands that permission was given for the release of the body, which was to be returned to his family on Wednesday.

The probe into the death has been escalating in the last week with detectives said to be closing in on a chief suspect in the case.

Gardai have continued to remain tight-lipped on the investigation. At no stage was Mr Wilkin named as a missing person, nor has his identity been officially confirmed by Gardai.

The finding of the body came after a multi-agency operation that resulted in the closure of the Sliabh Liag cliffs to the public for five days.

Garda forensics seized a car and also carried out an extensive search of a property in the Killybegs area, while another property in Ardara was searched by investigating officers.

Gardai have also been pouring over extensive CCTV in a bid to piece together the jigsaw surrounding a case that left south Donegal in shock.

The alarm was initially raised by a member of the public, who is understood to have reported that a man had been assaulted and was missing.

Two people, a man in his 30s and a woman in her 20s, were arrested and questioned before being released without charge.

Mr Wilkin, who was staying in south-west Donegal recently, was due to go before Folkestone Magistrates Court in England later this year for smuggling over €6.6 million worth of drugs in August, 2021.

He was found with a huge cache of heroin and cocaine hidden in a shipment of Belgian chocolates when his Polish-registered lorry was stopped at the Coquelles Channel Tunnel terminal.