On Sunday evening, our newsfeeds were filled with urgent appeals to help locate Richard Roche, a five-year-old boy who went missing from Dun Laoghaire.
Richard had disappeared from the playground in the People’s Park, prompting a Garda appeal and widescale search of the area.
The little boy was missing for three hours in total, and there was widespread relief when he was located, in his parents’ car.
The woman who found him, Emer Fitzgerald, has now opened up about the moment she discovered Richard.
In an interview with Dublin Live, the mum-of-two explained that she felt compelled to join the search after seeing the social media updates detailing his disappearance.
“I drove through Dun Laoghaire town, around where the amusements are, and then I drove to the car park in front of Teddy’s Ice Cream,” she explained.
“I just decided to have a look in there and I drove slowly looking out towards the sea and the pathways. Then something just caught my eye and I saw this little head pop up.
“The car was reverse parked, so I could see him through the back window and I just knew.”
As it turned out, when Richard got lost, he had returned to his parents’ cars.
Speaking to the Independent.ie, father Aidan added: “At first, he climbed and hid under my van, and then climbed into the window of my wife’s car, which was a few cars down.
“The park was surrounded by a large six-foot fence, so we couldn’t understand how he got out.
Richard Rochehas been located safe and well. Garda thank the public for their assistance. https://t.co/Z1iKBtGKfT
— An Garda Síochána (@GardaTraffic) July 2, 2017
“I looked in the van, around my wife’s car, under the car, but I never thought about checking inside the car. I just presumed it was locked.”
Emer recalled how scared Richard was when she first found him, and she assured him that, as a mum herself, she would look after him. The little boy was missing for a total of three hours before he was safely located.
Emer contacted the local authorities once she located Richard, and he was reunited with his frantic family shortly after.
We are so thankful that there was a happy ending to this story. We can’t imagine the fright that Richard’s family got on Sunday evening.
