Jón Jónsson disappearance: Gardaí interview almost 60 people in Iceland

Irish Times

4 days ago

Gardaí interviewed almost sixty 60 people in Iceland last week as part of their investigation into the disappearance of
Jón Jónsson
.
Formal statements were taken from 46 of those interviewed under the supervision of the Reykjavik Metropolitan Police. Gardaí said last week they
believe the answers to Mr Jónsson's disappearance lie in Iceland.
This international co-operation is the result of a court order, following a meeting at Europol in May this year. It allowed Icelandic police to provide gardaí with assistance, including translation, during investigations in Iceland. A team of five gardaí, led by Det Supt Alan Brady, liaised with counterparts in Iceland, headed up by Det Chief Insp Eiríkur Valberg of the Reykjavik Metropolitan Police.
This work went very well, according to a statement released yesterday by Reykjavik police. Gardaí returned to Ireland from the Icelandic capital on Saturday. They will now review and process the information obtained during their inquiries.
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'The next step when we get home - we examine everything that we've gotten from here, we keep in contact with Eiríkur and his team, and we see what other investigative opportunities arise from that,' said Det Supt Brady last Monday during press interviews in Reykjavik. 'We then try to progress the investigation from there.'
The Icelandic poker player went missing while attending the Dublin Poker Festival in February 2019. He was 41 at the time. Mr Jónsson, a father of four, was last seen on the Swords Road in the north of the city after leaving the Bonnington Hotel on February 9th. He had been in the country for less than 24 hours.
Since then, there have been a number of searches in the area, including four new searches in north Dublin in May this year, which also used cadaver dogs. A search of Santry Demesne was carried out in 2024.
Mr Jónsson's family appeared on The Late Late Show in March to raise awareness about the investigation.
'A huge part of our mission was to go on to The Late Late Show to apply pressure on the case,' said the missing man's brother, David Karl Wiium, in an interview in Reykjavik last week.
'You always have to do something to keep the case going, to keep the momentum going,' he said.
He said he was feeling optimistic and believed the gardaí would not have travelled to Iceland if they didn't think it was important.
Gardaí last week appealed to the public in Iceland to come forward with any information that might assist in the investigation.
Anyone with information is urged to get in touch with gardaí or to send an email to [e-mail].