In a call to mark the anniversary of the murders, they asked eyewitnesses who saw the killers flee from the scene to report.
On this day 38 years ago at around 2.15 p.m., three RUC officers made their last trip in an unmarked Ford Cortina.
They answered a call from a member of the public that there had been a robbery.
Sergeant Sean Quinn, 37, was the father of two young sons and a daughter.
Constable Allan McCloy was a 34-year-old father of two young daughters.
His 26-year-old constable Paul Hamilton would never see the son his pregnant wife was carrying.
Their life was taken shortly after they turned the M1 onto the Kinnego Embankment at Lurgan and passed the turnoff to a nature reserve called Oxford Island.
“A bomb was detonated that caused their vehicle to drive about 70 feet across a field, killing them all instantly,” said Jon Boutcher, a former UK police chief who leads the investigation into her death and is code-named Operation Turma.
The land mine that ended its life left a huge crater on the road about 15 feet deep and 40 feet wide.
A highly active IRA unit was operating in the Lurgan area at the time, and Northern Ireland was experiencing a period of prolonged bombing.
Despite a number of previous investigations and nine arrests, no one has ever been charged with the murders of the three RUC officers.
“Six children were raised without a father, and I know that is an all-too-familiar story during the Troubles,” says Boutcher.
“These families deserve to know what happened, they are remarkable people. They were hardly told anything about what happened that day.
“Nothing can fill that void or replace those stolen memories, but at least their families deserve to know the truth.”
This sense of loss emerges from a joint statement made by attorney Kellie Morwood of the Belfast law firm Edwards & Co, which represents the families.
“It has been 38 years since IRA terrorists cruelly took our loved ones from us,” the statement said.
“38 years without husbands, fathers, sons, brothers and also without justice or closure.
“A day never goes by, but we think of Sean, Allan and Paul. The legacy of what happened that day at the Kinnego Embankment on Oxford Island is an acute and persistent sense of loss and pain. ”
Shortly after the explosion, some eyewitnesses reported seeing two people run from the scene.
They reportedly escaped on a red Honda motorcycle that was stolen the day before.
They gave up on it and the helmets they’d worn near Francis Street in Lurgan.
The helmets were kept by the police and Jon Boutcher, and his team now hopes that new forensic methods of examining the DNA left by the killers will help identify them.
“We have made significant progress, and that progress is largely due to the investigative capabilities we now have in forensics,” he told RTÉ News.
“Of course, I won’t go into too many details now, but the advances we have seen in these techniques today in 2020 compared to what was possible in 1982 are seismic.
“And because there is still material, we were able to forensically manipulate all of today’s possibilities to get a good understanding of what happened that day.”
Believing there are people in the area who know or strongly suspect who was responsible, the detectives post pictures of the motorcycle helmets in the hopes that they will bring their memories back to life.
It is said that some witnesses spoke to the police at the time, but there are others who never said what they saw.
“I want you to please reach into your conscience, think of these widows, think of those children who grew up without their fathers, and just come and help us understand so that we can help them move forward, not backward watch.”
That plea was upheld by attorney Kellie Morwood on behalf of the families.
“In a single moment of barbaric slaughter, faceless cowards changed our lives forever,” the statement said.
“We have long believed that this appalling terrorist crime would remain unsolved.
“Now that encouraging progress has been made, we have been given renewed hope that the culprits will be identified, and with that we have achieved a sense of closure that has escaped us for far too long.”
The investigation is part of a series of legacy investigations code-named Operation Kenova.
The main focus is on the activities of an Army agent, code-named Stakeknife, who, as a senior member of the IRA, is believed to be responsible for dozens of murders and is responsible for identifying and killing informants within its ranks.
Kenova also investigated allegations against other alleged members of the IRA, as well as former police officers and members of the British military intelligence service.
As a result of this investigation, Jon Boutcher filed a series of files with the prosecutor earlier this year to determine whether a number of individuals should be charged.
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