Childhood photo of Cian with mother, Anthea. Credit: Anthea Langelaan
By Dionne Meehan
A MOTHER whose son went missing in Donegal over three years ago has renewed an appeal for information as she believes there is a “glimmer of hope” he is still alive.
Anthea Langelaan made the appeal during her appearance on the latest edition of ‘The Missing’ – a podcast dedicated to missing people.
“I still have to keep hold of that hope that somebody knows that my son is out there still,” she said.
In September 2020, Anthea’s son Cian Langelaan went missing from the Hornhead area close to Dunfanaghy.
Despite several appeals for help from the public, and an intensive Garda search, he has never been found.
In the months after his disappearance, Anthea, who is now living in the UK, kept in touch with Irish authorities checking in regularly for updates on her son’s potential whereabouts.
But sadly, none came.
That is until October last year, three years after Cian’s disappearance.
Setting up a Facebook page called ‘Find Cian’ around the time of his disappearance, Anthea was stopped in her tracks when fresh information was posted to the page in October 2023.
“I made a post and somebody came back to me,” she said.
“I didn’t know this person, but she said “I will never forget that day when I saw Cian get on the bus and I always wondered what happened”.
“I thought that’s strange, what is this bus that she is talking about?” added Anthea.
Keen to find out more, she contacted the person behind the post.
Claiming to have seen Cian in Dunfanghy two days after his disappearance, the woman told Anthea he boarded a Feda O’Donnell bus to Galway.
“She had a market stall in Dunfanghy and she said she remembers, quite clearly, Cian coming out of a coffee shop with a coffee in one hand and a cake in the other and he dropped the cake.
“She felt so sorry for him that she offered him a scone from her stall.
“She then said she saw him board the bus, a Feda O’Donnell bus, to Galway,” she said.
Claiming to be familiar with Cian after seeing him often at the Market Square, Anthea said the woman seemed “completely genuine”.
Wanting to hear her story first hand, Anthea travelled to Ireland.
“She was convinced that she did see Cian and that she did inform the guards,” she said.
However, Anthea said she was never contacted by Gardaí about the sighting.
Despite welcoming this new information, Anthea felt like it came three years too late and wondered if they had been searching for Cian in the wrong places.
With Anthea’s focus now changed to Galway, she spoke of returning to Ireland to continue the search for her son.
“If he did get on that bus he is quite possibly living on the streets,” she said.
“He lived in Falcarragh in this abandoned house for nearly three years, he wasn’t quite off the radar but I would imagine he could survive as a lot of people do.
“An awful lot of people live on the streets and go to soup kitchens to get their food and they do survive.
“There is a glimmer of hope he is still alive,” she said.
With this information renewing Anthea’s belief that one day she may be reunited with her son, she has issued a fresh appeal for information.
“To anybody that might have seen Cian or knows something about his disappearance, please get in touch with the Gardaí in Milford, myself or Missing Persons Helpline.”
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