A grandmother of Kyran Durnin, the child missing and believed murdered, has been reportedly recorded on tape saying she last saw the youngster alive on Wednesday, August 28.
Rhonda Tyson said he stayed in her house in Drogheda, Co Louth, with his mother, her daughter Dayla and had been sleeping on the couch.
But the next morning when she woke up, both mother and the child were gone. Dayla left a note for her on the table saying she needed to get away for a few days.
Her account of seeing Kyran recently alive is totally at odds with the view of Irish police that he has been dead for the last two years.
The recorded interview was obtained by the investigative BBC Spotlight team for their programme on the case The Lost Boy which was screened on Tuesday.
The interview with the granny was conducted by Andy Spearman, the editor of the Drogheda Life news website and published between the time the mother and child were reported missing and when Gardai launched a full-scale murder investigation for Kyran in early October.
Mr Spearman lived beside Ms Tyson on the same street in Drogheda and gives an account of how he got the interview and the tape recording, which Spotlight features.
Kyran was reported missing on August 30 and since then Gardai have stated they believe he has not been seen alive since the end of the summer school term in May/June 2022.
The authorities in the primary school he attended in Dundalk were told he would not be attending there any more because the family were moving up north outside of the jurisdiction.
In the recorded interview, Rhonda Tyson appeals to her daughter Dayla and Kyran to return home. She said: "Please, please pick up the phone and tell us that you and Kyran are OK."
The mother, Dayla, was subsequently located in East Anglia in England where she has been staying with friends but there has been no sign of the young lad.
It is understood the mother told Suffolk Police she had no idea where her son was. The tape has now been handed over to the Gardai as part of their investigation.
Mr Spearman told Spotlight that he had a "nodding acquaintanceship" with Ms Tyson prior to the interview. He was absolutely gobsmacked when the Gardai launched a murder probe.
He said: "I was shocked to the core, how could that be? I don't often stay awake at night thinking about things, but I did with this, because, you know, either she was lying through her teeth to me or the guards are wrong."
The Spotlight team approached Ms Tyson but she refused to comment.
Ireland's Special Rapporteur on Child Protection Caoilfhionn Gallagher SC has also now called for a full public inquiry to establish how Kyran went missing for two years without anyone noticing.
She told Spotlight: "The case is utterly horrifying. This is a child who's completely vanished off the face of the planet."
"This case should be a watershed moment for child protection in Ireland. It seems to me that there has to be a robust independent inquiry, a public inquiry which looks at the broader non-criminal issues and looks at how on earth this can have happened, and fundamentally looks at what needs to change in Ireland's child protection system to ensure that it never happens again."
"It seems to me that although we don't yet know the details , we do know that this was a child who was fundamentally very badly failed, and it seems likely by multiple agencies and potentially by multiple individuals."
Gardai say that the murder investigation into Kyran's disappearance is very much active and ongoing.
They did search and dig up the former family rented home in Dundalk but did not discover a body or anything of significance.
Detectives say they will be searching and digging at other locations most likely in the Drogheda area in due course. They have at least two suspects who they believe are responsible for the child's disappearance and possible murder.
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