Excavation work began this week in a field near Derryclone in County Armagh to locate the remains of Seamus Maguire.

Maguire, a Catholic from Aghagallon, was added to the list of the Disappeared in 2022 after information from the Police Service of Northern Ireland indicated he was killed by republican paramilitaries.

The search is taking place on land owned by Thomas Kirk, who has allowed machinery onto the two-acre site. Kirk recalled Maguire's grandmother and mother but had not known Maguire personally.

Eamonn Henry, lead investigator with the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains, said lines of inquiry point to the site as the likely location of Maguire's burial between 1973 and 1976.

Maguire was last seen in Lurgan, where he was reported to have been taken from Downings Bar after an argument with IRA members. Local accounts describe him as impressionable but not a member of the IRA.

The commission has not confirmed whether the Provisional IRA or Official IRA carried out the killing. Henry appealed for further information to help locate the remaining 17 individuals on the list of the Disappeared.

Kirk said he hoped the search would succeed so the family could have a burial.