{"id":574460,"date":"2026-07-29T22:07:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T22:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/574460\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T22:07:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T22:07:11","slug":"man-20s-released-without-charge-after-questioning-over-disappearance-of-pensioner-in-dublin-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/574460\/","title":{"rendered":"Man (20s) released without charge after questioning over disappearance of pensioner in Dublin \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Garda\u00ed<\/a> investigating the disappearance of a pensioner missing from his Dublin<\/a> home for more than a month believe he was murdered and his body disposed of to conceal the killing. <\/p>\n

Charlie \u201cLachy\u201d Clarke (67) was reported missing by his family in recent days. <\/p>\n

Detectives on Tuesday arrested a person of interest in the case, who has since been released without charge.<\/p>\n

Though the missing man\u2019s remains have not been found, garda\u00ed suspect he was killed in an apartment in the south inner city, probably late last month. A residential property in the Liberties area has been sealed off for forensic examination.<\/p>\n

The man\u2019s family, including his siblings and his children, many of whom are based in the southwest, have grown increasingly concerned as they have been unable to contact him in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

Though they brought their concerns to the Garda, they have also been making their own inquiries and seeking information in a bid to find out where he is and what has happened to him.<\/p>\n

After making trips to Dublin in a bid to get in contact with him, and speak to people who know him, they filed a missing person\u2019s report.<\/p>\n

\u201cGarda\u00ed are investigating all of the circumstances around the disappearance of a male \u2013 aged in his 60s \u2013 who was reported missing from the Dublin 8 area, on Sunday,\u201d Garda Headquarters said on Tuesday evening, in the first statement about the man.<\/p>\n

The man, in his 20s, who was arrested was detained at a Dublin Garda station under section four of the Criminal Justice Act, which gives garda\u00ed 24 hours to interview a suspect, at which point they must be charged or released.<\/p>\n

The Garda said on Wednesday evening the man had been released without charge, and a file will be prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions. Investigations are ongoing.<\/p>\n

Though garda\u00ed strongly suspect they will uncover evidence of a murder, their initial concern is to determine where the missing man\u2019s remains are.<\/p>\n

Although Charlie Clarke, who is originally from Limerick<\/a>, has not been seen by or spoken to any of his loved ones for over five weeks, his disappearance was only reported to the Garda two days ago.<\/p>\n

Garda sources say the delayed reporting will hamper the investigation, though they stressed the inquiry was now moving forward rapidly.<\/p>\n

One neighbour in the apartment complex where Clarke lived said he was \u201cshocked\u201d that \u201csomeone you\u2019d see regularly around seems to have disappeared\u201d.<\/p>\n

The resident, who did not want to be identified, said most people in the complex with whom he spoke to about Clarke since the news emerged \u201cwould\u2019ve only known him to say hello.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a big complex and everyone has their own lives,\u201d he said, adding that residents were \u201cjust shocked this would happen\u201d.<\/p>\n

There had been a strong Garda presence in the apartment complex overnight as they searched the apartment, the bins, and surrounding area, for evidence, residents said. <\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully he\u2019s found and God bless him and his family really. It\u2019s hard to know what else to say,\u201d the neighbour said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Garda\u00ed investigating the disappearance of a pensioner missing from his Dublin home for more than a month believe…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":574461,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[45,615,63274,42,1396,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-574460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-an-garda-siochana","tag-dublin","tag-dublin-8","tag-headlines","tag-limerick","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574460","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=574460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}