The missing torso of a murdered Irish teenager has been sent to a notorious crime boss and will never been found, it has been claimed.
Keane Mulready-Woods, 17, was barbarically decapitated and chopped up in Drogheda on January 12.
Mulready-Woods was abducted from the streets of Drogheda and taken to a pebble dash home, where he was tortured and murdered.
His head was severed, his body dismembered and a sports bag containing some of his limbs dumped on a north Dublin street. His torso has never been recovered.
The killing is a suspected gangland execution, and it is now understood the torso may have been sent to a Dublin crime boss as a threat from another group as part of the ongoing drug-fuelled gang feuds in the area.
Keane Mulready-Woods, 17, was barbarically decapitated and chopped up in Drogheda on January 12
A source told the Daily Star: ‘There is little doubt the torso will ever be recovered and there is also the possibility the torso was disposed of in a deliberate attempt to hamper the investigation.’
‘The torso is required for pathologists to determine the cause of death, whether he was murdered or the manner in which he died. So no cause of death has yet been determined.’
MailOnline previously revealed that the two factions currently at war with each other connected to the violence were originally part of the same gang.
Initially, one criminal outfit ran drugs in and out of the town and were overseen by a notorious traveller family headed by Owen Maguire who was linked to a crime kingpin in the north of Dublin called ‘Mr Big’.
Two years ago, four of the gang decided to break away in Drogheda to avoid having to hand over a cut of the drug money they were making.
Mulready-Woods was abducted from the streets of Drogheda and taken to a pebble dash home, where he was tortured and murdered.
These four include two notorious underworld brothers, a gangster from north Dublin and a 24-year-old Drogheda-based criminal now seen as the chief suspect in the Mulready-Woods murder.
They are also widely believed to have been behind an attempted hit on Owen Maguire in July 2018 when gunmen burst into his home and fired six shots into his body.
Miraculously he survived but was left paralysed in a wheelchair.
The attempt on his life lit the blue touch paper and sparked the current spate of violence. Mulready-Woods had links to the Maguire gang.
A source told MailOnline: ‘The savagery of this latest killing is a sickening development and marks a new low for the Drogheda feud.
‘This is something straight off the streets of Mexico or Columbia not one of the oldest towns in Ireland.
Victim Keane Mulready-Woods who was murdered and decapitated in Drogheda on January 12
A coffin carrying the remains of Keane Mulready-Woods is carried from the Church of the Holy Family in Drogheda after the teenager’s funeral
‘But this is the problem. The gangsters today are younger – aged in their mid-20s and 30s – and unlike in the past they consume their own product and that makes them dangerously unstable.
‘Cocaine use in Drogheda is rampant and it’s been getting steadily worse over the years – even in more rural areas out towards the coast.’
It comes just a week after the teenager’s funeral attended by friends and family.
Father Phil Gaffney pleaded for an end to the Drogheda gang feud which police believe was behind the killing, the priest said: ‘In the name of God let it end now’.
He told mourners: ‘Our first reaction today is one of great sympathy for Keane’s parents and family for the great crime committed against a brother and a son, for the great wrong that was done to them.
‘There has to be great anger and even sadness, great fear and pain perhaps, at the thought that we live in a society where certain people took upon themselves to ‘play God’ with regard to the life of Keane Mulready-Woods.
‘They took upon themselves to be judge and jury, and executioner. What arrogance. What appalling wickedness and evil.’
Drogheda has around 41,000 inhabitants making it the 11th largest settlement in Ireland.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar (centre left) and Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin (centre right) during a rally in Drogheda, Co. Louth, to voice opposition to drug-related violence on Saturday, January 25