THE heartbroken mum of a teenager found dead in a ditch after a night out has said she will be traumatised by what happened to him for the rest of her life.
Matthew McCallan's body was discovered off a rural road in Fintona, Co Tyrone, two weeks before Christmas last year.
The 15-year-old had been out with friends at a village country music event before his sudden passing.
He was last spotted at around 1.20am on December 4 but never came home.
A frantic search was launched to find the schoolboy and he was eventually found off Tattyreagh Road, some two miles from the venue and 35 hours after he went missing.
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A post-mortem revealed he died of hypothermia.
Matthew's devastated mum Frances said the loss of her son and how he died will "traumatise" her forever.
She told BelfastLive: "I already knew he was gone, but to hear those words, 'there has been a body found', it’s just your worst nightmare.
"I’m traumatised and I’ll be traumatised for the rest of my life to know that it’s possibly one of the worst deaths, to know he died alone in a ditch.
"It haunts me every night and every day and I’ll never be the same person again.
"I’ve lost everything because he was everything to me. He was the reason why I got up in the morning.
"You don’t sleep at night, you’ve got haunting visions of him walking around the roads in Fintona.
"Those thoughts haunted me and they’ll haunt me for the rest of my life."
