Teen’s final words to mum before brutal killing

The brutal murder of Keane Mulready-Woods shocked Ireland in 2020. The teenager, embroiled in a drug dispute in the town of Drogheda, was lured into a house on January 12, where he was tortured and beheaded.

His body parts were thrown from the car in a sports bag onto a sidewalk in the town of Motview. His head, arms, and legs were later found in a burned-out car in Dublin.

Keane's murder sparked a series of reprisals – culminating in the killing of the main suspect, Robbie Lawler, who was shot while collecting a drug debt.

Before disappearing, Keane called his mother, telling her he would be home late and asked her to leave money outside for a taxi. According to the Irish Independent, Keane, who had been recruited as a drug trafficker for a local gang, had a curfew to be home before dark and was following the rules, The Mirror reports.

At the time of his death, he was on licence after being convicted of threatening a local mother about drug debts owed by her child to a gang. Lawler allegedly murdered Keane because he believed the teenager was involved in the murder of his brother-in-law, Richie Carberry, at his home in November 2019.Gardas suspect Lawler began torturing the teenager, initially claiming he would only "beat him as punishment" for a minor drug debt. An insider told the Irish Sun: "Lawler was obsessed with Mulready-Woods and was determined to take his life because he was convinced he played a key role in Carberry's death."

"He took his violent tendencies to another level when he dismembered the teenager's remains and then taunted his enemies about it."

The 36-year-old man was linked to several murders and had hundreds of criminal charges against him before he was shot and killed. In December, he was released from court after being acquitted of attempted murder charges against the mother of his ex-girlfriend's new partner.

Just weeks after being acquitted of attempted murder charges and released from court, he was attacked outside a gym by a man associated with one of his alleged murder victims. Lawler's gym bag was stolen, and his rivals posted photos of themselves wearing his slippers.

It is widely believed that Keane was present during the attack—and an enraged Lawler allegedly sought revenge. One of the photos shared after Keane's death bore the chilling caption: "I will never rob a man of his slippers again."

In February 2023, local criminal Paul Crosby was sentenced to 10 years in prison for assisting in Keane's murder, and his co-accused, Gerard "Rocky" Cruz, received a seven-year sentence. A third man, Gerard "Ged" McKenna, pleaded guilty to destroying evidence and cleaning up the scene.

In a heart-wrenching victim impact statement read out on behalf of Keane's devastated 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," she said, adding that part of her died too. "I couldn't protect him."