Keane Mulready-Woods, 17, was kidnapped and brutally murdered in a gangland killing spree that sent shockwaves across Ireland – and he left a chilling final message for his mother
A 17-year-old who was kidnapped and brutally dismembered sent a terrifying final text message to his mother before he was barbarically murdered.
The gruesome murder of Keane Mulready-Woods in 2020 reverberated across Ireland and left the nation in shock. The youngster, embroiled in a drug war in Drogheda, was lured to a property on January 12 where he suffered horrific torture before being beheaded.
His severed limbs were dumped from a car into a sports bag on the pavement in Moatview. Several days later his head, hands and feet were discovered in a torched car in Dublin.
Keane’s murder sparked a wave of retaliatory violence, eventually leading to the murder of prime suspect Robbie Lawlor, who was shot dead while pursuing a drugs debt.
Prior to his disappearance, Keane called his mother, told her he would be home late and asked her to keep a taxi fare available.
Keane, who had become entangled in his activities as a drugs courier for a local criminal organization, was given strict orders to return before nightfall and had complied with those instructions, the Irish Independent reported.
At the time of his death, he was being released on license following a conviction for intimidating a local mother over her child’s drug debts to the gang.
It is understood Lawlor killed Keane because he believed the teenager was involved in the fatal shooting of his brother-in-law Richie Carberry at his home in November 2019.
Gardaí believe Lawlor continued to torture the teenager despite initially claiming he would only hand out a “punishment spanking” for a trivial drug debt.
An insider 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. He took his propensity for violence to another level when he dismembered the teenager’s remains and then taunted his enemies about it.”
The ruthless 36-year-old had been involved in multiple murders and had amassed hundreds of criminal records before his fatal shooting.
Last December he left court without charge after being acquitted of the attempted murder of the mother of his ex-partner’s new boyfriend.
Just weeks after his acquittal of attempted murder, he was attacked outside a fitness center by someone linked to one of his alleged murder victims.
Lawlor’s belongings in the gym were stolen and his opponents posted photos of themselves wearing his slippers.
It is widely known that Keane was present during the incident – and an irate Lawlor reportedly planned retaliation.
Among the images circulating after Keane’s murder was one with the sinister caption: “I won’t rob a man’s slippers again.”
In February 2023, local criminal Paul Crosby was given a ten-year prison sentence for his involvement in Keane’s murder, while his accomplice Gerard “Rocky” Cruise was jailed for seven years. A third person, Gerard ‘Ged’ McKenna, admitted to clearing and disposing of evidence from the site.
In a heartbreaking victim impact statement for Keane’s grief-stricken mother Elizabeth, she said: “No one can imagine the darkness and sadistic evil in our country. I can hear him shouting ‘Mom, Mom’ – and the terrifying nightmares live with us forever. To lose my child, my son and my baby in a most inhuman, barbaric death is shocking,” adding that part of her also died. “I couldn’t protect him.”
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