West port search update

No change to the situation reported in the last release from Saturday.

All search staff have returned to their normal duties/locations. 5 staff remain in Westport to continue the enquiry.

The author of the anonymous letter received by police last Friday has not yet made contact but Police were hopeful they would do so. Detective Inspector John Winter said that the author obviously had material information that they wanted to share with police, and which fitted in with information that police had obtained from other unconnected sources. The totality of that information was being treated as genuine, and was in all probability known to only a few persons in the Westport community said D/I Winter.

The arrival of Police in the area had generated a lot of interest and police were confident that they were on the right track, however they would have to break through the reluctance of some people to co-operate. D/I Winter said that this attitude had been apparent on the last major operation run by him in Westport, the 5-year long missing persons inquiry from 1999-2004 in relation to John James Bambrough, which resulted in the arrests of 2 men for murder and others on related crimes.

Mr Winter said that the end of the search phase did not mean the end of the enquiry, and that the police were committed to uncovering what had happened to Mr Kim. Whilst it was apparent that he was no longer alive, the location, timing and manner of his death remained unclear as was the identity of anyone who may have been involved.

Those with information in their possession might still be in Westport, whilst others may have moved to other locations. Such people needed to examine their conscience and ask themselves whether it was fair on the grieving KIM family on the other side of the world that they were being denied closure on what had happened to their son and brother.