Missing Icelandic poker player Jon Jonsson lost €4,000 within hours of his arrival in Dublin, gardaí say
Mr Jonsson, a taxi driver, went missing on February 9, 2019, while attending the Dublin Poker Festival at the Regency Hotel (now renamed the Bonnington Hotel) on the northside of the city.
Detective Superintendent Alan Brady led a delegation of five members of An Garda Síochána to the Icelandic capital, Reykjavik, last week to interview 46 people who knew the father of four.
Among those interviewed were convicted criminals, as well as the missing man's family, friends and associates in the poker world. Gambling is illegal in Iceland, and Mr Jonsson was heavily involved in the scene in his homeland.
Det Supt Brady, who is attached to Ballymun garda station, said: 'We formally interviewed 46 people. We will now go home and assess all the information we received, which was worthwhile for the investigation.
'We interviewed Jon's friends, family members and poker players. We interviewed some convicted criminals who knew him. There has been a lot of rumour about what happened to Jon in Dublin — that his death was linked to the poker community here. Even rumours of a hitman.
Gardaí say they haven't ruled anything out
'We believe that whatever happened to Jon, happened in Ireland. But we also think that the answers to what happened to him lie among the Icelandic community.'
The senior officer said the investigation remains open and has not been upgraded to homicide.
'We haven't ruled anything out. We're still looking at everything from murder, to suicide or an accident of some kind,' he added.
Mr Jonsson's fiancee Kristjana Gudjonsdottir had arrived in Dublin just a few hours before he disappeared, having missed the first day of the poker tournament.
He left the hotel on foot at about 11am and was seen on camera by CCTV 200 metres away. Beyond that image, no trace of him has ever been uncovered, despite several intensive searches and gardaí following up more than 350 lines of enquiry.
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The 41-year-old did lose some money while playing poker in Dublin, but not a significant amount, Det Supt Brady said.
'Jon was playing poker in games where the buy-in was about €500. We believe he lost between €3,000 and €4,000. We've also established that the money he lost was sent over within a few hours from people in the poker scene in Iceland,' he said.
'It has been suggested to us by people that he could have come to some harm by people involved in criminality. We've followed up every avenue and there are lots of theories.'
Gardaí also spoke to Mr Jonsson's family in Reykjavik. The family had previously criticised aspects of the garda investigation.
'We had meetings with some members of the family and also interviewed some of them. We built bridges. They have gone through huge heartbreak for the past six years. No family should have to go through that. We are here to try and get answers for them,' Det Supt Brady said.
'It is a joint investigation and the co-operation has been top class'
'Jon was a nice guy. He wouldn't harm a fly. He was a very big man but not an aggressive man. He was not an angry person. It doesn't appear feasible to us that he would have gotten into a fight.'
Det Supt Brady praised the assistance gardaí received from the Icelandic police.
'It is a joint investigation and the co-operation has been top class. We sent a list to the Icelandic police investigators of the people we wanted to speak with, and we carried out 46 formal interviews out of the 58 people we identified,' he said.
The Sunday Independent previously reported about how an imprisoned criminal in Iceland played an 'instrumental' role in communicating a dramatic version of events to Icelandic police — which, it was claimed, culminated in the murder of the taxi driver.
In 2020, police in Iceland were told that Mr Jonsson was killed 'by accident' by a fellow countryman, after a falling out over squandered gambling money.
His family, meanwhile, believe he may have been murdered by a paid hitman in a case of mistaken identity. It is being examined whether this potential hitman intended to target a different Icelandic man who was visiting Ireland at the time.
In April, gardaí in Dublin carried out four new searches with cadaver dogs. This followed the receipt of new information, after RTÉ aired a podcast series on Mr Jonsson's disappearance.
'I would still appeal to anyone who attended that poker tournament, or with any information, to come forward to gardaí or the Icelandic police,' Det Supt Brady said.
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