Hi °C | Lo °C TREVOR Deely was born 30 years ago this autumn.
It is a milestone in any life, but all the more poignant for the missing bank worker's family.
Another milestone: his sister Michele gave birth to a beautiful baby girl this year.
But Trevor, who disappeared on a Dublin street eight years ago, was not there to celebrate the happy event.
Now his family, from Naas, Co Kildare, must brace themselves for yet another memory filled, lonely Christmas without him.
"We are still hopeful he is alive," his father Michael, who has campaigned tirelessly for his lost son, said today.
"As a family we will never forget him and we will never give up hope."
Hope was a scarce commodity during the past year, when, yet again, there was no progress in unravelling the mystery of what happened to Trevor on that pre-Christmas party night in 2000.
"There have been plenty of contacts with the gardai and there were contacts after I appeared on the Late, Late Show. There's a follow up but nothing comes from it," he said.
"I talked to gardai about the cold case unit taking it on but they said there was no point going down that route because they look at past murders."
Memory
And that is the awful dilemma facing the family: after eight years they are no closer to an answer.
His father has always said there is no proof Trevor is dead and that he may be suffering from memory loss.
"He could be anywhere," he said. "There have been other cases where people have just dropped off and haven't been seen," Mr Deely said.
Christmas was no worse than other days but "it's a homecoming time and from that viewpoint, it's very lonely," he added.
Trevor celebrates his 30th birthday this year while his brother Mark now has three girls and his sister Michele had a baby girl in September -- another niece who may never know her uncle Trevor.
The family keeps hoping that someone, somewhere knows something which could help end their awful uncertainty.
Many remember Trevor's face from the high-profile poster campaign his family ran. Even young passing-out gardai, who might have been only 12 when Trevor vanished, are reminded of his face as one of the best-known missing person cases. His father is in regular contact with the gardai about Trevor's case.
Trevor was last seen on the night of December 7, 2000. It was a windy, wet night and there was a taxi strike on. He was in good form when he phoned his father at 7.30pm and socialised that night with colleagues in Copperface Jack's bar on Harcourt Street, then the Hilton Hotel on Earlsfort Terrace and finally at Buck Whaley's nightclub on Leeson Street.
Golf
He left the nightclub at 3.25am, walking to his office at Bank of Ireland Asset Management. He spoke to a colleague working the night shift in the IT section and checked his email. He collected a blue ACC golf umbrella because of the rain and left at about 4am.
He tried to make a number of calls on his mobile phone to a friend in Naas as he walked down Wilton Terrace and across to Baggot Street Bridge, apparently towards his apartment in Serpentine Avenue, Sandymount.
Video footage places him near Baggot Street Bridge at about 4.15am heading towards Haddington Road. He was wearing a yellow and brown shirt and beige cord trousers.
It was the last confirmed sighting of Trevor. Garda air, water and dog units took part in the search for him throughout Dublin, as well as an army of volunteers led by his family.
The Grand Canal between Leeson Street and Ringsend was dredged and garda divers scoured the River Dodder. But no trace of him has ever been found.
