“Our Mum looked for Seamus right up until the day that she died,” they added.
A dig organised by the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains (ICLVR) will start at nearby Derryclone later on Tuesday.
The ICLVR was set up as part of the Northern Ireland peace process to search for the bodies of the Disappeared.
So far, it has found the remains of 13 of the 17 victims but this will be its first search for Seamus Maguire.
His name was only added to their list four years ago because of a lack of information over his movements in the last years of his life.
“As with other Disappeared cases it was not immediately clear whether or not Seamus Maguire was a missing person case or was the victim of an abduction, murder and secret burial,” said the ICLVR’s lead investigator, Eamonn Henry.
“It was initially thought that Seamus disappeared sometime around 1973-1974,” he explained.
“But it was also subsequently suggested that after spending time in Manchester he may have returned to Northern Ireland and was then killed and secretly buried in the Aghagallon/Derryclone area in 1976 when he was 29.”
“Whatever the issues around specific dates, we are now satisfied that there is sufficient credible information to commence a search in the Derryclone area.”
