Philip Cairns went missing from the Rathfarnham area in Dublin on 23rd October 1986.
The youngster had gone to school as normal that day, returning home to have his lunch. Sadly, he never made it back to school and his body was never found.
Speaking to John Cooke, a reporter from RTÉ's Today with Sean O'Rourke, Alice Cairns said that while she still doesn’t know "what the story was" she will forgive the man who murdered her son.
“You still have to forgive anyway, for me to have my own peace – you have to forgive,” she bravely told the reporter.
“You would just like to know – just put an end to it. To give us a little bit of consolation.”
Philip was just 13-years-old when he went missing and while his bag was found in a laneway a week after his disappearance, nothing more was ever discovered.
Alice still go though that lane where Philips' bag was located minus two religious books, although she told the reporter that she doesn’t really think about it when she's walking down it.
“I don’t think going through it – I don’t think Philip left a bag there. I certainly think he was abducted anyway but I have no idea.”
'That was the one day that I wasn't here... when I came home, he wasn't here' Alice Cairns recalls that day pic.twitter.com/G9F1EiII7k
— Today Sean O'Rourke (@TodaySOR) June 16, 2016
Recent reports have brought the case back into the open but what happened that day still remains a mystery.
“It’s only recently that I’ve come to terms with that he probably won’t come back, possibly since my husband died,” Philip's mum said.
“I don’t like to say that but if he’s in heaven that’s good.”
Gardaí are appealing for anyone who may have been asked or forced to leave Philip's school bag in that laneway; if you have any information you can call Rathfarnham Garda station on 01 666 6500 or the Garda Confidential line on 1800 666 111.
