It was the story that terrified an awful lot of parents yesterday: a five-year-old boy out for the day with his family went missing for an agonising five hours.
And now a Dublin mother-of-two has explained how she sprang into action, joining the frantic search party and eventually locating the child; she later described the day as “the most eventful and emotional” of her life.
Taking to Facebook, Emer Fitzgerald, a mum of two living in the Dún Laoghaire area, described how she spotted news of Richard’s disappearance online.
Gardaí seeking to locate Richard Roche, aged 5 years, who was last seen in the People’s Park, Dun Laoghaire today. Please call 999 pic.twitter.com/AJd8bWXj5x
— Garda Info (@gardainfo) July 2, 2017
She decided to join the search, relaying how she got into her car and drove slowly along the seafront close to the famed Teddy’s ice-cream parlour.
Emer states she stopped her “car in the middle of the road and jumped out” when she saw a little head pop up from the boot of a parked car.
She walked around the vehicle and “knocked on the window,” where she found the little boy – who she says was “terrified and crying”.
Emer continues: “I shouted out ‘does anyone own this car’ thinking maybe a parent must have left him there for a minute, but everyone kept walking by.
“I stopped a lady walking past, Claire, and asked her to stand beside me as I took the boy out through the window as the car was locked.”
Emer says she asked him his name and he replied “Richard”. She next spotted the Power Ranger runners – which matched the Garda description of what the little Wexford boy was wearing – and realised that he was the missing child. She says that, understandably, the relief was “unreal”.
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
The Coast Guard and gardaí were afterwards notified and Richard – one of five children – was taken to the local garda station where he was reunited with his desperately worried parents.
Previously, Aiden Roche had described to The Mirror how his son had disappeared.
“He told us after that he couldn’t see anyone in the park so he left, and went out to the car park. 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.”
Aiden added that while he looked in his van, around and under his wife’s car, he “never thought about checking inside the car. I just presumed it was locked”.
