Robert must have been snatched, says mother
Missing schoolboy Robert Holohan was most likely abducted, his distraught mother claimed today.
As gardaí carried out a reconstruction of his last known movements exactly a week after the youngster disappeared, his mother, Majella, pleaded for him to be returned to the family home in Midleton, Co Cork.
“Definitely, he must have been taken. Who would do such a thing to a lovely innocent 11-year-old boy?” she asked.
“He must have been taken against his will but even at this stage if that person is listening now, I’m begging him or her to drop him off somewhere.
“It was a bad thing to do but it’s not the worst scenario as long as Robert is back here with us. Just drop him off somewhere.”
Mrs Holohan described her experience as a “nightmare” but said she had to remain hopeful that her son would be returned to her.
“We have two other children here in the house, we have to try to keep the spirits up here in the house and and try to keep on as normal,” she told RTE radio.
“My daughter’s gone to school at the moment, she’s eight-years-of-age, and we’re trying to keep going as best we could.
“We had a lovely family life, we had everything to live for and this is just after turning our whole world upside down.
“We’re just hoping now that Robert is alive and that he will come back to us and that everything will be normal again.”
Mrs Holohan thanked everyone for their support and pleaded with the thousands who had taken part in the search for her son to keep looking.
“I’m begging people to keep looking for him, to keep searching and to make sure we get him back here to Ballyedmond before long,” she added.
The 11-year-old has not been seen since he left his home near Midleton in Cork on his BMX bicycle a week ago.
A local boy dressed in identical black clothes to those Robert was wearing when he disappeared took part in the reconstruction this afternoon.
Investigating gardaí said that the reconstruction was scheduled to match the time of Robert’s last known movements between 2.15pm and 2.36pm last Tuesday afternoon.
Television cameras followed the double of the 11-year-old cycling around his garden at his home and then cycling down the hill into another house.
It then focused on the spot where Robert stopped to make a mobile phone call at 2.36pm, and then where his new BMX bike was found near the East Cork Golf Club.
Gardaí and army personnel, along with thousands of local volunteers, have carried out extensive searches of the area around Midleton.
Gardaí have appealed for drivers of white vans in the greater Cork area to contact them after one was spotted in the area where Robert went missing. They have said the searches will continue until Robert is found.
