TRIBUTES have been paid to the top archaeologist who helped bring closure to the anguished families of Northern Ireland's Disappeared.

John McIlwaine, a forensic archaeologist with the University of Bradford, died suddenly on Tuesday night at the age of 49.

The academic, who grew up in Portadown, Co Armagh, led the team of excavators searching clandestine graves to find the bodies of people who were kidnapped, killed and secretly buried by the IRA during the 1970s and 80s.

He was in charge of the team that recovered the remains of Danny McIlhone in 2008 and Charlie Armstrong in 2010.

Mr Armstrong's daughter Anna McShane recognised his dedication.

She said: "I remember him as an awfully nice man who was so good to our family. He worked tirelessly in the most dreadful conditions to find my father. May he rest in peace."

Mr McIlwaine had described it as a "privilege" to lead searches for the Disappeared and said their success of the Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains (ICLVR) had far outstripped predictions.

Seventeen people were abducted and murdered by republicans between 1972 and 2003. The ICVLR, set up in 1999, has so far recovered the bodies of 10 people.