A dead man linked to the couple arrested on suspicion of the murder of Baby John in County Kerry in 1984 could be crucial to the case.

Gardaí are reportedly satisfied that the arrested couple were Baby John’s parents; however, they are still investigating how he died.

Baby John was found with multiple stab wounds on White Strand Beach in Caherciveen 39 years ago today.

He is believed to have been born five days earlier on April 9th, 1984.

Two people arrested on suspicion of the murder last month - A man in his early 60s and a woman in her late 50s - have since been released.

They were arrested after Gardaí carried out DNA sampling in the community and exhumed Baby John’s remains in September 2021.

Main image shows White Strand beach in Cahirsiveen, Co Kerry. Image: John Cairns / Alamy

On Newstalk Breakfast this morning, Irish Independent Southern Correspondent Ralph Riegel said the couple’s solicitor has been vocal in pointing out that DNA evidence does not explain how Baby John died.

“What Gardaí are doing is looking at the entire picture and this individual, who passed away within the five years, it is now believed he had a lot of the answers to what happened,” he said.

Mr Riegel said Gardaí are now investigating everything that happened in the five days Baby John was alive.

Dead man

He said the deceased man was known to the two people who were arrested.

“We know that he passed away within the last five years,” he said.

“He does have a link to the couple that was detained and it is believed that he was in the Kerry area at that particular time in 1984.

“So, I think what Gardaí are looking at is the general circumstances in which Baby John met his death.”

The grave of five-day-old infant 'Baby John' in Holy Cross cemetery in Caherciveen, County Kerry, 25-03-2023. Image: PA Images / Alamy

Mr Riegel noted that the baby boy “met a particularly violent death, after a frenzied attack in which he suffered multiple knife wounds as well as severe injuries to his spine”.

He said one of the avenues Gardaí are investigating is whether the attack on the infant was “prompted somehow by an issue of shame or the general circumstances in which he was born”.

Kerry Babies

A fresh investigation was opened at the beginning of 2018 following a Garda apology to Kerry woman Joanne Hayes, who had been wrongly accused of the murder.

Ms Hayes was arrested and confessed to the baby’s murder but later withdrew it.

The Abbeydorney woman was known to have been pregnant in the run-up to Baby John’s discovery and was arrested.

She later admitted that her own child had died shortly after birth and had been buried on her family farm.

Joanne Hayes at the hearing at the Kerry Babies Tribunal, 1985 Image: Eamonn Farrell/RollingNews

At the time, Gardaí attempted to prove that Ms Hayes had become pregnant simultaneously by two different men and had given birth to both children.

Gardaí confirmed via a DNA profile in 2018 that Ms Hayes was not Baby John’s mother and apologised to her for her treatment during the investigation.

In 2020, the State apologised for the "truly appalling hurt and stress" caused to Ms Hayes and her family.