Keane Mulready-Woods, 17, was abducted and brutally murdered in a gangland killing that sent shockwaves throughout Ireland – and he left a chilling final message for his mum
A 17-year-old who was kidnapped and gruesomely dismembered sent a haunting final text to his mother before his barbaric gangland killing.
The horrific murder of Keane Mulready-Woods in 2020 reverberated across Ireland, leaving the nation in shock. The youngster, embroiled in a drugs turf war in Drogheda, was enticed to a property on January 12 where he endured appalling torture before being beheaded.
His severed limbs were dumped from a car in a sports bag onto a pavement in Moatview. Several days afterwards, his head, hands and feet were discovered in a torched car in Dublin.
Keane’s killing triggered a wave of retaliatory violence, ultimately leading to the assassination of chief suspect Robbie Lawlor, who was shot dead whilst pursuing a drugs debt.
Prior to his disappearance, Keane rang his mother, informing her he would return home late and requesting she leave taxi fare available.
Keane, who had become entangled in operating as a drugs courier for a local criminal organisation, was under strict orders to return before nightfall and had been following these instructions, according to the Irish Independent.
At the point of his death, he was released on licence following a conviction for intimidating a local mother regarding her child’s drugs debts owed to the gang.
It is understood that Lawlor killed Keane because he believed the teenager was implicated in the fatal shooting of his brother-in-law Richie Carberry at his home in November 2019.
Gardaí believe that Lawlor progressed to torturing the teen, despite originally claiming he would merely deliver a “punishment beating” over a trivial drugs 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 merciless 36-year-old had been connected to multiple killings and accumulated hundreds of criminal records before his fatal shooting.
Last December, he left court without charges after being acquitted of attempting to murder the mother of his former partner’s new boyfriend.
Mere weeks following his acquittal on the attempted murder allegation, he was attacked outside a fitness centre by someone associated with one of his supposed murder victims.
Lawlor’s gym belongings were stolen and his adversaries posted pictures of themselves sporting his flip-flops.
It’s commonly understood that Keane was present during the incident – and an enraged Lawlor reportedly planned retaliation.
Amongst the images circulated following Keane’s murder was one bearing the sinister caption: “Won’t be robbing a man’s flip-flops again.”
In February 2023, local criminal Paul Crosby received a 10-year prison sentence for his involvement in Keane’s slaying, whilst his accomplice Gerard “Rocky” Cruise was handed seven years imprisonment. A third individual, Gerard ‘Ged’ McKenna, admitted to cleaning up and disposing of evidence from the location.
In a heartbreaking victim impact statement read out for Keane’s grief-stricken mum Elizabeth, she said: “No one could imagine the darkness and sadistic evil in our country I can hear him calling ‘Mam, Mam’ – and the haunting nightmares live forever with us. To lose my child, my son, my baby in a most inhumane, barbaric death is shocking,” adding that a piece of her died as well. “I couldn’t protect him.”
