Teenager Noah Donohoe looked ‘startled’ as he picked up his bicycle from the road and dropped his jacket in the minutes before he disappeared, an inquest has heard.
Noah, 14, disappeared on June 21 2020 after leaving his home in Belfast, Northern Ireland on his bike to meet friends.
He was last seen close to a storm drain on Northwood Road in the north of the city at around 6pm. His body was found 600 metres downstream close to the M2 motorway six days later.
At an inquest at Belfast Coroner’s Court, jurors were read a statement from witness Sinead Quinn regarding a sighting of the teen that she gave to police in May 2021.
She told officers that she saw a young man she was ‘certain’ Noah picking up his bike in the street on the evening he disappeared – and that he looked ‘startled’ as she sounded his horn to alert him to the fact he had dropped his jacket.
‘I remember it was Father’s Day last year as I had went to get my father a present,’ Ms Quinn said in the statement, read out by Mr Declan Quinn BL.
‘I was driving. We went to Lidl and Asda on the Shore Road. It was just as the shop was closing, around 6pm.
‘As I was about to turn right onto North Queen Street, I saw a young male picking a bike up off the road.
‘I saw he had dropped a khaki coat. I beeped the horn. He looked at the coat and looked at me. He looked startled and cycled on.’
Noah Donohoe with his mother Fiona, who is still hoping for answers over her son’s death six years on
Noah Donohoe disappeared on June 21 2020 in Belfast and was found in a storm drain six days later
She did not see if he had been injured – and contacted the police when an appeal was issued for information following Noah’s disappearance.
‘I am certain it was Noah I saw. The bike and coat were the same,’ she added.
Yesterday, the inquest was shown CCTV footage of Noah’s journey across Belfast after leaving his mother Fiona’s home on Fitzroy Avenue.
Non-continuous clips showed him cycling from the south to the north of the city. In the final footage, on Northwood Road, Noah was seen cycling naked.
Another witness, Donna Blain, told yesterday’s hearing she had seen a boy matching Noah’s description crouching at the driver-side wheel arch of a silver Ford Fiesta.
Ms Blain said the youngster’s bicycle was on the ground, along with his jacket, and that he looked ’embarrassed’ as he cycled off.
Asked if Noah had sustained any injuries, she said: ‘I didn’t notice any cuts or bruises.’
The hearing also heard from friend Charlie Rocks, who said his friend was ‘going through something… a good thing, a transitional thing in his mental health’ before he had gone missing.
Noah had sent a message reading ‘sad boi hours’ on June 5, of which Mr Rocks said: ‘He was just a little upset and down and that happens, it’s okay.’
The friend described Noah as ‘always reading’, that his favourite book was 1984 and that he had developed an interest in the Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson, even offering to lend Mr Rocks a copy of his book, 12 Rules for Life.
Mr Rocks added: ‘He never mentioned to me anything about storm drains or going underground or being in tunnels.
‘If he had have been interested in these things, he would have talked about them as he would always have spoken about things that he was interested in throughout lockdown.
‘He appeared to be upbeat and was looking forward to ending lockdown. He never appeared to be down or depressed, and only mentioned once to me that he was feeling blue.’
