Seventeen-year-old Keane Mulready-Woods sent a haunting final text to his mother, asking her to leave taxi fare out, hours before he was kidnapped and brutally murdered in a Drogheda gangland feud in January 2020.
The teenager, caught up in a drugs turf war, was lured to a property where he was tortured and beheaded. His severed limbs were dumped from a car in a sports bag on a pavement in Moatview. Days later, his head, hands and feet were discovered in a torched car in Dublin.
Keane had been working as a drugs courier for a local criminal organisation and was on licence after being convicted of intimidating a mother over her child's drugs debts. His killing sparked a wave of reprisals, culminating in the murder of chief suspect Robbie Lawlor, who was shot dead while pursuing a drugs debt.
Gardaí believe Lawlor killed Keane because he thought the teenager was involved in the fatal shooting of his brother-in-law, Richie Carberry, in November 2019. A source told the Irish Sun: 'Lawlor was obsessed with Mulready-Woods and was determined to take his life because he was convinced he played a major role in Carberry's death.'
In February 2023, Paul Crosby was sentenced to ten years in prison for his part in the killing, while Gerard 'Rocky' Cruise received seven years. A third man, Gerard 'Ged' McKenna, admitted to cleaning up evidence from the scene.
In a victim impact statement, Keane's mother Elizabeth said: 'No one could imagine the darkness and sadistic evil in our country... To lose my child, my son, my baby in a most inhumane, barbaric death is shocking.' She added: 'I couldn't protect him.'
