Whereabouts
Shergar's remains have never been found and the thieves have never been officially identified. The Sunday Telegraph reported that four days after Shergar was seized, the Army Council realized they would never collect a ransom. They decided to release the horse, but due to heavy surveillance on Mallon and under the eyes of the entire Irish public, the thieves felt it was impossible to move Shergar or free the horse near where he was held. Mallon thought the horse to be injured, and ordered his execution.
The two thieves, inexperienced in handling racehorses and with no prior knowledge of humane euthanization techniques, went to the remote stable where Shergar was being held and opened fire with a machine gun. A former IRA member involved described the scene to The Sunday Telegraph: "Shergar was machine gunned to death. There was blood everywhere and the horse even slipped on his own blood. There was lots of cussin' and swearin' because the horse wouldn't die. It was a very bloody death." Shergar slowly bled to death.
Few gained from the theft of Shergar - the thieves never got their money and most insurers never paid out to the syndicate, claiming that he could still have been alive after the policy had expired. Insurance policies against theft taken out with forerunners of the Aviva insurance group paid out £144,000, according to Aviva's online archive. According to a spokesman for Lloyd's of London, some owners of the stolen stallion will be paid $10.6 million in compensation. The money will be paid only to those members of the 34 member syndicate who had been insured for theft (Thoroughbred Times, 2008).