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Gardaí (Irish police) investigating the disappearance and murder of Willie Maughan and Anastasija Varslavane have started a fresh search of open lands in north County Dublin.

The couple were last seen on 14 April 2015.

Gardaí have said that the area of land will be searched and subject to excavation, technical and forensic examinations over the coming days.

At the time of their disappearance, one line of inquiry was that the couple had been murdered by a criminal gang.

The couple had been together since 2014 and lived in a caravan in Gormanston, County Meath.

Mr Maughan had decided to return to his family home in Tallaght with Ms Varslavane.

On the morning of Tuesday 14 April 2015 Mr Maughan went to Balbriggan followed shortly afterwards by Ms Varslavane.

They ran some errands and made contact with William’s mother to arrange for her to travel from Tallaght to Gormanston to collect them and their belongings.

William spoke to his mother at about 14:30 local time and asked her to make her way out to Gormanston to collect them.

Mr Maughan and Ms Varslavane got a taxi together from Balbriggan to Gormanston just shortly after 14:30.

Mr Maughan's mother arrived in Gormanston just before 15:00 but could not locate her son.

She drove to Stamullen to look for him but didn’t find him.

She returned to Gormanston and called his mobile phone but it went straight to voicemail.

Mr Maughan and Ms Varslavane did not show up and Mr Maughan's mother became extremely worried, and reported them both as missing.

The case was upgraded to a murder investigation following a review of the case in September 2016.

Gardaí have again appealed for anyone with information on the couple's disappearance and murder to contact them.