The distraught mother of a young man who went missing at the Giant’s Causeway has revealed a possible sighting of her son as the search for him continues.
Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph, Lalitha McLennan, mother of Lester McLennan, said a local tour guide had approached the police saying that he had spotted her son in the Dunseverick Castle area.
The tour guide said he spoke with him before seeing Lester make off east towards Dunseverick Castle.
“The police told me Lester had spoken to him for a certain amount of time and was asking him questions about the local area,” Ms McLennan explained.
“He then set off in the direction of Dunseverick Castle. He was at that time near the stacks.”
A multi-agency search continues for 20-year-old Lester McLennan who was reported missing after travelling to the Giant’s Causeway in the morning of Friday November 1.
Lester’s dad and girlfriend are now also in the country aiding in the search.
An image released of two men who handed in a backpack belonging to Mr McLennan on Saturday
Ms McLennan appealed once again for the individuals who handed a black backpack into the Giant’s Causeway visitor centre to come forward to help further narrow the search area.
“I can’t stress enough how helpful that would be,” she said
“The bag had his passport and I think, possibly, they carried it quite a way as they thought it was important.”
“Where the phoned last pinged is such a huge area, its around 12 miles across I think. Originally we thought [the bag] was found in the carpark but it was just handed into the staff there,” she said.
The last trace police gathered from his phone was around 5pm on the day he went missing.
Mrs McLennan explained she has been very “distressed” however is ready to push on with finding her son.
“Yesterday afternoon I had lost all energy and got to a point where I was very distressed but I feel like I’m back on it today,” she said.
She explained that after dropping out of school during lockdown, Lester finally saw a future for himself after enrolling in an access course for university this year.
“He was quite low and anxious during lockdown which was really difficult for him and he did bomb out of his A-Levels,” she said.
“In September, he just started an access course to go to university and he was just so excited about it.”
“It was really nice, he was full of enthusiasm. He said he could see a future for himself.”
Sean McGarry of the Community Rescue Service in Coleraine confirmed that teams have scoped the Dunseverick Castle area already but will be returning.
Mr McGarry said: “He was obviously going in a certain direction which helps us. That takes him much further east.
“We have to make these assumptions, so we have already searched this area but we will return to that direction and get another search there as well.”
PSNI said the incident happened in the Roden Street area of south Belfast. Credit: Google Maps