At  Urbleshanny Church  Scotstown gardaí , a team of scientists and an anthropologist have started a dig at the  graveyard  in an attempt to establish if a body believed to be buried there is one of the "disappeared".
An exhumation order was sought from the Minister for Justice after gardaí and the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains received information regarding the identity of the body in the grave .
Last December, Fermanagh-based priest Fr Joe McVeigh called on the commission and the Department of Justice to investigate a secret burial at the graveyard.
Fr McVeigh said he had been given information that a body was buried in a shallow grave. He said the grave was discovered in 1980 when the remains of a person who had died in England were being legitimately buried in the plot.
The site in Co Monaghan is in the same region were several digs have taken place in the search for Columba McVeigh, a 17-year-old from Donaghmore in Co Tyrone who was abducted and murdered by the IRA in October 1975.
Gardaí hope to establish if one of the so-called "disappeared" that come within the remit of the commission was buried in the grave.
The exhumation  being carried out in the presence of the State Pathologist Professor Marie Cassidy and a forensic anthropologist. Commission staff and scientists are also present. A source at the scene said that consultant forensic scientist and investigator was there as well. In the course of his police service Mr Knupfer was involved in the investigation and management of a number of major and protracted investigations, including the Manchester Air Disaster and the ‘Moors Murders’
A forensic examination of the remains will take place once the body is exhumed but it is anticipated that it will take some time to establish its identity.
Sixteen people are categorised as having ‘disappeared’ during the Troubles and nine bodies have been recovered to date.
The Provisional IRA admitted responsibility for killing 11 of the 16 and one death was admitted by the INLA. It is not known who killed the remaining  four.