{"id":314601,"date":"2026-02-24T11:24:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T11:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/314601\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T11:24:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T11:24:07","slug":"man-arrested-for-questioning-about-murder-of-co-kerry-sheep-farmer-michael-gaine-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/314601\/","title":{"rendered":"Man arrested for questioning about murder of Co Kerry sheep farmer Michael Gaine \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Garda\u00ed have arrested a man in his 50s for questioning about the murder of Michael Gaine<\/a>, who disappeared from his farm near Kenmare in Co Kerry<\/a> last year. <\/p>\n

Detectives arrested the suspect in Tralee shortly after 8am on Tuesday and brought him to Castleisland Garda station for questioning.<\/p>\n

The man is detained under section four of the Criminal Justice Act which allows garda\u00ed to detain suspects for up to 24 hours before they must be either charged or released.<\/p>\n

Officers from the Kerry Serious Crime team made the arrest with support from officers from the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation and members of the Armed Support Unit.<\/p>\n

It is understood the arrest follows the discovery of what Garda sources have said was new circumstantial evidence which they believe links the suspect to Gaine\u2019s murder.<\/p>\n

Last month, senior local officers in Kerry reviewed the case along with colleagues for the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation and a decision was made to arrest the suspect.<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s arrest is the second that garda\u00ed have made in the case and follows the arrest of former US soldier Michael Kelley last May for questioning about the killing.<\/p>\n

Gaine (56) from Sheep\u2019s Rest, Carhoomengar East, was last seen alive at 9.48am on Thursday, March 20th, 2025, when he called to buy phone credit at Whyte\u2019s Centra in Kenmare.<\/p>\n

He was reported missing by his brother-in-law Sean O\u2019Regan the next day and a search was conducted at his farm, some 5km from Kenmare town.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Who is Michael Kelley, the man questioned over the murder of Michael Gaine?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

His Toyota Rav4 was found in the farmyard and his phone and wallet were found in the vehicle.<\/p>\n

Despite extensive searches of the 1,000-acre holding by garda\u00ed, assisted by members of the Defence Forces, no trace was found of the missing farmer.<\/p>\n

Garda\u00ed formally upgraded their investigation into Gaine\u2019s disappearance on April 29th from that of a missing person investigation to a murder investigation.<\/p>\n

The next day, Gaine\u2019s wife Janice, who had worked as a teacher in the Black Valley National School up to her retirement, and his sister Noreen O\u2019Regan issued an appeal for information.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe loved his home, he loved his farm, he loved his animals, he loved rallying, he had lots of friends, he was a very popular guy and his disappearance is totally out of character,\u201d said Janice Gaine in a video appeal released by An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to know what happened to him because if we can\u2019t find Michael, I just don\u2019t know what I am going to do.\u201d <\/p>\n

Gaine\u2019s sister Noreen O\u2019Regan added: \u201cWe are absolutely heartbroken at what has happened \u2013 we are devastated, our lives are shattered \u2013 we want answers.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the afternoon of May 16th, 2025, a relative of Gaine was spreading slurry on the farm when he noticed a blockage in the slurry spreader.<\/p>\n

When he went to free the blockage, he noticed what appeared to be body parts and alerted garda\u00ed. They cordoned off the area and requested the services of the State Pathologist.<\/p>\n

The following day, State Pathologist Dr SallyAnne Collis and forensic anthropologist Dr Laureen Buckley carried out a preliminary examination of the scene.<\/p>\n

A search of a slurry tank on the farm by members of the Garda Water Unit found further human remains that were later confirmed as those of Gaine.<\/p>\n

Garda\u00ed believe that Gaine\u2019s killer had dismembered his body using a power tool such as a reciprocating saw and disposed of the body parts in the slurry tank.<\/p>\n

Kelley had been living at the old Gaine family homestead at Carhoo East where Gaine paid him \u20ac100 a week and allowed him to live rent-free in return for helping out.<\/p>\n

Kelley was arrested in Tralee on May 18th, 2025, and taken to Killarney Garda station where he was questioned for 24 hours about the murder before he was released without charge.<\/p>\n

Kelley later confirmed to The Irish Times and other media that he had been arrested and questioned about Gaine\u2019s murder but denied any involvement in the killing. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Murdered Kerry farmer Michael Gaine left an estate of \u20ac1.86mOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Garda\u00ed have arrested a man in his 50s for questioning about the murder of Michael Gaine, who disappeared…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":314602,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,146979,43,15449,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-314601","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-kerry-farmer-missing","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-pa2025","12":"tag-top-news","13":"tag-top-stories","14":"tag-topnews","15":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}