WEBVTT - S08 Episode 4: Oh Darling, Make it Go 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:19.119 Parental discretion as advised violent sexual assault. The concept of 0:00:19.239 --> 0:00:23.640 vanishing might seem anachronistic in today's age of social media 0:00:23.880 --> 0:00:28.320 and surveillance capitalism, but few things have the capacity to 0:00:28.440 --> 0:00:32.400 frighten like the notion of completely falling off the face 0:00:32.440 --> 0:00:36.280 of the earth from the disappearance of the Roanoke Colony 0:00:36.520 --> 0:00:40.360 in the sixteenth century in what is today North Carolina, 0:00:40.960 --> 0:00:45.280 as covered in Season four, episode thirteen's Lost in Stormy 0:00:45.400 --> 0:00:50.120 Visions to images of lost children emblazoned on milk cartons 0:00:50.200 --> 0:00:54.480 during the nineteen eighties. Vanishing speaks not only to our 0:00:54.560 --> 0:00:59.160 collective anxiety about mortality, but seems to pluck at the 0:00:59.280 --> 0:01:04.600 very fabric of existence itself. Culturally, some of us may 0:01:04.640 --> 0:01:08.679 be consoled by notions of an afterlife, wherein death is 0:01:08.760 --> 0:01:12.160 not treated as an end but a new beginning. But 0:01:12.360 --> 0:01:18.640 vanishing implies non existence without closure, perhaps because its physical 0:01:18.680 --> 0:01:23.679 intangibility seems to robbers of everything and everyone at once, 0:01:24.319 --> 0:01:30.640 our presence, futures and pasts, and all unfulfilled potentialities. To 0:01:30.720 --> 0:01:35.039 disappear from sight is to disappear from memory, and to 0:01:35.120 --> 0:01:38.399 disappear from memory is to be as though we never 0:01:38.480 --> 0:01:44.360 existed at all. Conversely, for some, vanishing is an opportunity 0:01:44.440 --> 0:01:50.160 for freedom, an antidote to today's hyperconnected world, where cutting ties, 0:01:50.760 --> 0:01:54.200 going off grid and living on one's wits is an 0:01:54.240 --> 0:01:58.760 alluring alternative to the rat race. Thus romance, we're told 0:01:59.080 --> 0:02:02.240 in taking to the road, in starting it all again 0:02:02.680 --> 0:02:06.600 without the pressures of the mundane. Such a notion might 0:02:06.680 --> 0:02:11.280 seem appealing until we consider the consequences and the pain 0:02:11.480 --> 0:02:16.560 we'd most likely leave in our wake. Given Island's tempestuous 0:02:16.680 --> 0:02:21.480 history during the Troubles and beyond of enforced disappearance by 0:02:21.560 --> 0:02:27.960 paramilitary organizations, clandestine state actors, and powerful drug gangs, the 0:02:28.080 --> 0:02:33.239 idea of disappearance in the form of secret abduction, imprisonment, 0:02:33.680 --> 0:02:38.160 or murder cuts to the core of the concept. The 0:02:38.280 --> 0:02:44.160 vanishing triangle, a term coined by former crime correspondent Geraldine Nyland, 0:02:44.600 --> 0:02:49.280 refers to a number of high profile, possibly connected disappearances 0:02:49.320 --> 0:02:53.840 in Ireland that Nyland pursued between the mid nineteen eighties 0:02:54.040 --> 0:02:59.320 and late nineteen nineties. According to Nyland, up to fourteen 0:02:59.480 --> 0:03:03.720 women either vanished or were murdered within one hundred kilometer 0:03:03.880 --> 0:03:08.520 radius of islands capital Dublin. She noted a number of 0:03:08.600 --> 0:03:14.040 eerie similarities not only of circumstances, but attributes shared by 0:03:14.080 --> 0:03:18.800 many of the women whose disappearances she investigated. The women's 0:03:18.840 --> 0:03:23.320 ages ranged from late teens to late thirties. Each of 0:03:23.320 --> 0:03:28.720 them disappeared inexplicably and suddenly, with no substantial clues or 0:03:28.800 --> 0:03:33.960 evidence ever being found, despite large scale searches and campaigns 0:03:34.000 --> 0:03:38.520 by the National Police Force, the Garda Shiacona. Though the 0:03:38.600 --> 0:03:42.560 Guardee would eventually satisfy themselves that at least four of 0:03:42.600 --> 0:03:46.920 these cases were perpetrated by people unconnected with the other ten, 0:03:47.360 --> 0:03:52.119 questions still remain about whether a serial killer or killers 0:03:52.680 --> 0:03:55.680 was allowed to operate in the area known as the 0:03:55.760 --> 0:04:00.360 Vanishing Triangle for over a decade, and if ni Ellen's 0:04:00.360 --> 0:04:03.960 accounts of the disappearances that anything to go by, the 0:04:04.040 --> 0:04:08.640 main suspect may very well be walking free. To this day, 0:04:10.040 --> 0:04:23.320 you're listening to Unexplained, and I'm Richard McLean Smith. It 0:04:23.440 --> 0:04:28.359 was a typically rainy day in the affluent suburb of Sandymount, County, Dublin, 0:04:28.800 --> 0:04:32.440 but twenty six year old Long Island native Annie McCarrick 0:04:32.839 --> 0:04:37.159 had good reason to be feeling optimistic. Annie had spent 0:04:37.240 --> 0:04:39.680 most of her life in New York, but fell in 0:04:39.720 --> 0:04:42.680 love with Ireland while training to be a teacher there 0:04:42.800 --> 0:04:46.200 in the eighties. After a short spell back in the 0:04:46.320 --> 0:04:51.480 United States studying at Stonybrook University, Annie returned to Ireland 0:04:51.520 --> 0:04:56.159 in nineteen ninety three with plans to settle down. Something 0:04:56.200 --> 0:04:59.640 about the pace of life she'd enjoyed during her teacher 0:04:59.680 --> 0:05:02.960 training in Dublin had left a lasting impression on her, 0:05:03.880 --> 0:05:06.680 but it was also the way everyone greeted each other 0:05:06.880 --> 0:05:09.880 when they passed in the street, and the close circle 0:05:09.920 --> 0:05:14.280 of friends she'd made during her time there. Whatever it was, 0:05:14.720 --> 0:05:17.720 Annie was excited to tell her loved ones that she'd 0:05:17.720 --> 0:05:20.359 finally made a decision about what she was going to 0:05:20.440 --> 0:05:24.880 do with her life. Passionate as she was about working 0:05:24.920 --> 0:05:27.760 with the children, there was no doubt in Annie's mind 0:05:28.080 --> 0:05:31.520 that following her ambition to become a teacher had to 0:05:31.560 --> 0:05:36.400 happen in her adopted country. Annie's other great passion in 0:05:36.440 --> 0:05:41.560 life was the great outdoors. In March nineteen ninety three, 0:05:42.120 --> 0:05:46.039 Annie arranged to go hiking in the nearby Wicklow Mountains 0:05:46.440 --> 0:05:50.560 with one of her closest acquaintances. The next day, she 0:05:50.640 --> 0:05:54.520 had plans to meet other friends for dinner, and her mother, Nancy, 0:05:54.920 --> 0:05:58.360 was due to visit the following weekend, and so it 0:05:58.560 --> 0:06:03.400 was that on Friday, March twenty sixth Annie woke looking 0:06:03.440 --> 0:06:07.279 forward to taking in some crisp country air and maybe 0:06:07.360 --> 0:06:10.719 even calling into one of the traditional Wicklow pubs for 0:06:10.800 --> 0:06:14.360 a cold pint and to listen to some traditional music. 0:06:14.600 --> 0:06:19.080 Later that night, Annie was preparing a list of provisions 0:06:19.080 --> 0:06:21.960 for herself when she got a call from her friend 0:06:22.880 --> 0:06:26.880 through a bunged up nose and the occasional splutter, The friend, 0:06:27.279 --> 0:06:32.040 clearly suffering from a cold, apologized profusely but they wouldn't 0:06:32.080 --> 0:06:36.880 be joining Annie on the walk after all. Though disappointed, 0:06:37.320 --> 0:06:43.400 Annie resolved to go it alone. Nonetheless, CCTV cameras tracked 0:06:43.440 --> 0:06:46.000 Annie as she made her way from her apartment in 0:06:46.160 --> 0:06:50.080 Sandymount to a local bank, where she deposited her wages 0:06:50.160 --> 0:06:53.960 from the cafe she worked at. From there, she went 0:06:54.000 --> 0:06:57.320 to a nearby supermarket to pick up groceries for that 0:06:57.520 --> 0:07:02.280 night's dinner. Annieged a short time later with a bag 0:07:02.320 --> 0:07:06.200 of groceries before heading off away from the high Street 0:07:06.560 --> 0:07:12.760 in the direction of her apartment. That night, a near 0:07:12.880 --> 0:07:18.120 full moon, barely glimpsed through overcast skies, rose above the 0:07:18.200 --> 0:07:23.400 rugged heather covered terrain of the Wicklow Mountains. As the 0:07:23.440 --> 0:07:28.200 air cooled, a light mist came down, obscuring the mountain 0:07:28.280 --> 0:07:37.000 peaks completely. The following day, Annie's friends gathered outside her 0:07:37.040 --> 0:07:42.360 apartment building, clutching bottles of wine. They rang the buzzer excitedly, 0:07:42.920 --> 0:07:45.840 keen to hear about Annie's hike from the previous day. 0:07:46.640 --> 0:07:52.960 Then they waited and waited. They checked their watches. Someone 0:07:53.040 --> 0:07:57.320 lit a cigarette. It was definitely today, wasn't it. They 0:07:57.360 --> 0:08:10.960 wandered amongst themselves. Either way, Annie wasn't home. One of 0:08:11.000 --> 0:08:14.720 Annie's friends knew the buzzer for the landlady who lived 0:08:14.800 --> 0:08:18.760 in the same building. When she answered, they asked if 0:08:18.760 --> 0:08:22.200 she wouldn't mind letting them up into Annie's flat so 0:08:22.280 --> 0:08:24.600 they could come out of the cold and wait for 0:08:24.640 --> 0:08:30.240 her there. Moments later, they stood a little anxiously outside 0:08:30.280 --> 0:08:34.360 Annie's flat as the landlady turned the key and pushed 0:08:34.360 --> 0:08:40.960 open the door. Inside was dark and eerily quiet. They 0:08:41.000 --> 0:08:44.120 flicked on the lights and made their way toward the kitchen, 0:08:44.480 --> 0:08:48.319 where they soon spotted a bag of recently bought groceries 0:08:48.800 --> 0:08:52.920 still unpacked, left out on the counter. She must have 0:08:53.120 --> 0:08:56.240 just popped out for a moment, they thought, until they 0:08:56.280 --> 0:09:00.160 found the receipt inside the bag. It was dated on 0:09:00.200 --> 0:09:04.480 the previous day and timestamped at eleven two. A m 0:09:06.320 --> 0:09:10.120 unsure what it all meant, Annie's friends called the police 0:09:10.160 --> 0:09:14.000 immediately to let them know that Annie appeared to have 0:09:14.040 --> 0:09:18.520 gone missing. It wouldn't be until the following day, however, 0:09:18.840 --> 0:09:22.440 with the young American having then been missing for almost 0:09:22.559 --> 0:09:27.360 forty eight hours, that an official missing persons report was filed. 0:09:28.440 --> 0:09:32.480 Over time, a picture of Annie's last known movements was 0:09:32.559 --> 0:09:37.680 slowly pieced together. The last confirmed sighting of Annie was 0:09:37.720 --> 0:09:40.480 the morning of the twenty sixth at her local bank. 0:09:41.600 --> 0:09:44.240 She also made a phone call that morning from a 0:09:44.240 --> 0:09:47.960 public phone box to her ex boyfriend's brother in the 0:09:48.000 --> 0:09:50.400 hope of trying to get in touch with her ex, 0:09:50.800 --> 0:09:54.040 who was out at the country at the time. What 0:09:54.320 --> 0:10:00.640 followed has only ever been considered anecdotal evidence. This conductor 0:10:00.880 --> 0:10:04.439 claimed to have seen a woman fitting Annie's description around 0:10:04.480 --> 0:10:07.920 three forty pm on the Friday, boarding a bus from 0:10:08.040 --> 0:10:13.199 Dublin to Enniskery in County Wicklow, about twenty five kilometers 0:10:13.240 --> 0:10:18.199 south of Dublin. Later that night, according to a dorman 0:10:18.320 --> 0:10:22.280 and some others, Annie was seen at Johnny Fox's pub 0:10:22.600 --> 0:10:26.160 in the Glen Cullen area, a good few kilometers walk 0:10:26.240 --> 0:10:31.240 from Enniscerrey. The dorman working that night would later tell 0:10:31.320 --> 0:10:36.160 investigators that he saw a woman meeting Annie's description with 0:10:36.280 --> 0:10:39.800 a man whom he described as having short brown hair 0:10:40.360 --> 0:10:45.160 and of rugby players built. The dorman remembered the interaction, 0:10:45.360 --> 0:10:48.840 he said, because the woman's accents stood out, and the 0:10:48.840 --> 0:10:51.760 man she was with offered to pay her cover charge 0:10:51.800 --> 0:10:56.559 for the venue. Annie had been missing for four days 0:10:56.800 --> 0:11:01.320 when her anguished parents, Nancy and John, arrived in Dublin 0:11:01.440 --> 0:11:05.760 to join the search. It seemed to Nancy and Annie's 0:11:05.760 --> 0:11:09.840 friends that the Guardy the Irish police only took the 0:11:09.880 --> 0:11:14.840 case seriously once Annie's father arrived on the scene. They 0:11:14.840 --> 0:11:19.480 only took men seriously at that time, said Nancy. That's 0:11:19.600 --> 0:11:23.679 just how it was back in those days. The Guardian 0:11:23.800 --> 0:11:27.800 felt there was little reason to suspect anything suspicious had occurred. 0:11:28.760 --> 0:11:31.959 As tragic as it was, it was beginning to appear 0:11:32.240 --> 0:11:35.080 to them at least as though Annie had either gone 0:11:35.160 --> 0:11:38.640 missing of her own accord, or had simply got lost 0:11:39.120 --> 0:11:43.960 or badly injured while out walking. Frustrated by what they 0:11:44.040 --> 0:11:48.240 saw as a lackluster response from the GUARDI, Annie's family 0:11:48.400 --> 0:11:52.760 hired private investigator Brian McCarthy to follow up on any 0:11:52.800 --> 0:11:57.840 potential leads that the police had missed. On McCarthy's advice, 0:11:58.360 --> 0:12:01.280 of one hundred and fifty thousand dollar reward was put 0:12:01.360 --> 0:12:04.840 up for any information that could solve the mystery of 0:12:04.880 --> 0:12:11.160 Annie's disappearance. Family friend and FBI special agent Kenneth Strange 0:12:11.480 --> 0:12:15.720 also offered to help securing resources from the US government 0:12:16.040 --> 0:12:21.880 to open a separate stateside investigation into Annie's disappearance. However, 0:12:22.600 --> 0:12:39.760 concrete answers remained elusive. In comparison to Annie McCarrick, friends 0:12:39.760 --> 0:12:44.679 of twenty one year old Josephine or Jojo Dullart described 0:12:44.720 --> 0:12:48.880 her as a somewhat shy and reserved character. Back in 0:12:48.920 --> 0:12:54.840 November nineteen ninety five, Jojo was experiencing financial difficulties after 0:12:54.920 --> 0:12:59.000 dropping out of her beauty therapy course in Dublin. Feeling 0:12:59.040 --> 0:13:02.800 a little insecure about the future, she decided to return 0:13:02.840 --> 0:13:06.760 home to the village of Callen County Kilkenny, about one 0:13:06.840 --> 0:13:10.280 hundred and fifty kilometers south of Dublin, to stay with 0:13:10.320 --> 0:13:13.280 her parents for a short time while she considered her 0:13:13.320 --> 0:13:17.720 next steps. She told her family to expect her on 0:13:17.800 --> 0:13:23.120 November ninth. At eleven thirty seven pm. On the evening 0:13:23.240 --> 0:13:25.840 of the ninth, the phone rang in the home of 0:13:25.960 --> 0:13:30.600 Mary Cullinant, one of JoJo's closest friends who also lived 0:13:30.640 --> 0:13:35.120 in Callen. Mary picked up the phone to find Jojo 0:13:35.400 --> 0:13:38.560 on the other end of the line. It isn't known 0:13:38.640 --> 0:13:42.960 exactly why Jojo called Mary. Perhaps she didn't want to 0:13:43.000 --> 0:13:47.080 worry her parents or disturb them if they were already asleep. 0:13:48.080 --> 0:13:52.000 Despite being a little tired and cold, Jojo was otherwise 0:13:52.080 --> 0:13:56.280 in good spirits, as she explained to Mary. Although she'd 0:13:56.320 --> 0:13:59.400 missed her planned bus out of Dublin, she'd managed to 0:13:59.400 --> 0:14:01.559 get another one on to take her as far as 0:14:01.679 --> 0:14:05.400 Nays in County Kildare. She was just calling to let 0:14:05.440 --> 0:14:09.000 Mary know in case anyone was worried that she was 0:14:09.080 --> 0:14:12.800 now in Moon After securing a few lifts from strangers. 0:14:13.960 --> 0:14:18.280 With another seventy kilometers still to go until Callan, Jojo 0:14:18.520 --> 0:14:21.400 was just waiting in the hope of finding another ride 0:14:21.440 --> 0:14:25.840 to get her home. Mary heard the sound of a 0:14:25.920 --> 0:14:29.840 vehicle approaching before coming to a stop near the phone box. 0:14:30.640 --> 0:14:36.400 Moments later, the phone line went dead. Jojo Dunnart was 0:14:36.520 --> 0:14:43.440 never seen again. Despite JoJo's family's insistence that something untoward 0:14:43.560 --> 0:14:46.880 had taken place, the Guardie was said to be slow 0:14:47.360 --> 0:14:52.800 in taking her disappearance seriously. It wasn't until three days 0:14:52.880 --> 0:14:56.840 after she went missing that they opened a formal investigation. 0:15:04.400 --> 0:15:07.760 As the years passed, there were few developments in both 0:15:07.960 --> 0:15:13.720 Jojo Dullard and Ani mccarricks cases. Unbeknownst to their families. However, 0:15:14.160 --> 0:15:18.000 key figures within the Gardi Shia Khanna were starting to 0:15:18.160 --> 0:15:23.880 hypothesize that something dark and disturbing was at play. Ever 0:15:23.960 --> 0:15:28.280 since Special Agent Kenneth Strange of the FBI opened his 0:15:28.400 --> 0:15:34.320 investigation into Anie McCarrick's disappearance in nineteen ninety three, resources 0:15:34.360 --> 0:15:39.160 were shared and theories discussed between the two international police bodies. 0:15:40.400 --> 0:15:45.160 In nineteen ninety eight, GUARDI detectives secured an invite to 0:15:45.240 --> 0:15:52.640 the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit at Quantico, Virginia for a consultation. There, 0:15:52.840 --> 0:15:56.640 they began to develop the theory that both Jojo Dullard 0:15:56.680 --> 0:16:01.320 and Annie had been abducted and murdered, and possibly by 0:16:01.360 --> 0:16:05.440 the same person. They even developed a profile of the 0:16:05.640 --> 0:16:10.800 likely assailant. The potential suspect they believed was likely to 0:16:10.840 --> 0:16:14.440 be a married man in its thirties with children, who 0:16:14.440 --> 0:16:18.120 had no previous run ins with the law. In short, 0:16:18.560 --> 0:16:22.920 their perpetrator was probably someone who gave the appearance of 0:16:22.960 --> 0:16:26.920 being a law abiding citizen, and may even have ingratiated 0:16:27.000 --> 0:16:31.760 himself as a pillar of his local community. Ireland, it 0:16:31.840 --> 0:16:36.680 seemed potentially at its very own serial killer on the loose. 0:16:38.240 --> 0:16:42.360 In response to this terrifying prospect, the GUARDI set up 0:16:42.400 --> 0:16:47.360 a dedicated task force named Operation Trace, with the express 0:16:47.480 --> 0:16:53.000 purpose of solving any and all unresolved disappearances and homicides 0:16:53.400 --> 0:16:57.360 in what had then become known as the Vanishing Triangle area. 0:16:58.480 --> 0:17:01.600 They offered a ten thousand year euro reward for any 0:17:01.640 --> 0:17:07.000 information resulting in the recovery of a body. Despite the 0:17:07.040 --> 0:17:11.800 mood of general apprehension surrounding the Guardian investigation into the 0:17:11.880 --> 0:17:16.440 Vanishing Triangle, nineteen ninety eight was generally seen as an 0:17:16.440 --> 0:17:21.840 optimistic turning point for Irish society. In March of that year, 0:17:22.200 --> 0:17:26.760 the historic Good Friday Agreement was ratified into the Irish Constitution, 0:17:27.359 --> 0:17:31.600 effectively ending or at least quelling hundreds of years of 0:17:31.640 --> 0:17:36.960 animosity between the Irish and British states. Northern Ireland would 0:17:36.960 --> 0:17:41.639 have its own devolved Parliament. The Irish Republic meanwhile, was 0:17:41.680 --> 0:17:45.360 in the nascent stages of a period of economic prosperity, 0:17:45.800 --> 0:17:51.920 which would eventually bloom and become known as the Celtic Tiger. Then, 0:17:52.600 --> 0:18:05.400 in July nineteen ninety eight, another young woman disappeared. Eighteen 0:18:05.480 --> 0:18:09.760 year old student Deirdre Jacob had returned home from London, 0:18:09.800 --> 0:18:12.640 where she was studying to spend the summer with her 0:18:12.680 --> 0:18:18.040 parents in Newbridge, County Kildare. She just completed her first 0:18:18.160 --> 0:18:21.920 year at Saint Mary's University and was due to return 0:18:21.960 --> 0:18:25.960 to her accommodation in Twickenham, South London within the next 0:18:26.000 --> 0:18:30.480 few months. On the day of her disappearance, she completed 0:18:30.520 --> 0:18:33.680 some financial admin at the local branch of her bank, 0:18:34.080 --> 0:18:37.040 before going to the post office to complete a bank 0:18:37.119 --> 0:18:42.080 draft in anticipation of her return to London. This was 0:18:42.119 --> 0:18:46.479 the last known sighting of Deirdre. Sometime around three pm. 0:18:47.960 --> 0:18:52.520 Some passing motorists said they saw Deirdre approaching her parents 0:18:52.680 --> 0:18:57.600 driveway a short time later, but she never made it inside. 0:18:58.160 --> 0:19:02.000 On this occasion, the guy body wasted little time and 0:19:02.080 --> 0:19:08.480 immediately opened an investigation once again. However, they quickly reached 0:19:08.480 --> 0:19:16.320 a dead end. Eighteen months later, one dark, cold night 0:19:16.720 --> 0:19:21.439 in early February two thousand, two men Ken Jones and 0:19:21.520 --> 0:19:25.880 Trevor Moody drove into the foothills of the Wicklow Mountains 0:19:26.080 --> 0:19:30.280 to hunt for foxes. Coming up over a rise, the 0:19:30.359 --> 0:19:33.320 headlights from their jeep picked out a car in a 0:19:33.400 --> 0:19:36.880 lay by up ahead, and what appeared to be a 0:19:36.920 --> 0:19:41.359 pair of legs sticking out of the boot. There was 0:19:41.400 --> 0:19:44.760 a man there too, standing at the back of the car. 0:19:46.040 --> 0:19:49.560 Just then a woman burst out at the boot with 0:19:49.720 --> 0:19:53.439 what appeared to be a plastic bag stuffed in her mouth. 0:19:54.600 --> 0:19:58.560 She felt at the ground and crawled rapidly off into 0:19:58.600 --> 0:20:03.639 the shadows. The man, suddenly disturbed by the lights of 0:20:03.680 --> 0:20:07.640 the jeep, darted into the car, reved up the engine, 0:20:08.160 --> 0:20:12.240 spun it around, and tore off, but not before the 0:20:12.359 --> 0:20:17.439 hunters saw his face. Pulling up the jeep, Jones and 0:20:17.520 --> 0:20:20.960 Moody sprinted toward a ditch where they thought the woman 0:20:21.000 --> 0:20:24.640 had gone. When they shone the torch into it, they 0:20:24.680 --> 0:20:29.439 gasped in horror. The woman lay trembling, caught on a 0:20:29.480 --> 0:20:33.480 fence of barbed wire. She was naked from the waist up, 0:20:34.200 --> 0:20:39.240 her face and body bruised and bloodied. It's okay, they 0:20:39.280 --> 0:20:42.520 said to her. We want to help you. We know 0:20:42.600 --> 0:20:47.880 who that was. Four years ago, the man they saw 0:20:48.000 --> 0:20:51.480 tearing off in his car had sexually assaulted one of 0:20:51.520 --> 0:20:54.760 their friends in a pub not too far away. They 0:20:54.800 --> 0:20:59.280 were sure of it. The man they believed was from 0:20:59.280 --> 0:21:04.280 the bolting Glean about thirteen kilometers away. He was a 0:21:04.320 --> 0:21:10.719 carpenter and his name was Larry Murphy. Jones and Moody 0:21:11.040 --> 0:21:14.080 rescued the young woman from the ditch and drove her 0:21:14.119 --> 0:21:22.119 immediately to bolting Glass police station. It was just after 0:21:22.240 --> 0:21:26.120 eight a m. The following morning when two car loads 0:21:26.200 --> 0:21:30.800 of guardie arrived at a small dormer bungalow about five 0:21:30.880 --> 0:21:35.560 kilometers outside of bolting Glass, the home of Larry Murphy, 0:21:36.200 --> 0:21:41.359 his heavily pregnant wife, and their two sons. Just like 0:21:41.480 --> 0:21:47.879 the FBI profile had predicted, Murphy was eventually found guilty 0:21:48.080 --> 0:21:52.840 of repeatedly and violently assaulting and raping a twenty six 0:21:52.920 --> 0:21:56.800 year old woman. It was a terrifying and lengthy ordeal 0:21:57.240 --> 0:22:00.159 that began with her abduction from a car park in 0:22:00.240 --> 0:22:05.239 Carlo Town, about ninety kilometers southwest of Dublin and a 0:22:05.240 --> 0:22:09.080 good twenty five kilometers from where she eventually ended up 0:22:09.400 --> 0:22:24.439 in the foothills of the Wicklow Mountains. Larry Murphy, or 0:22:24.520 --> 0:22:27.520 the Beast of bolting Glass, as he was dubbed by 0:22:27.560 --> 0:22:32.119 the media, received just fifteen years in prison for his crime, 0:22:32.640 --> 0:22:37.280 despite the seriousness of the incident. Murphy, like the men 0:22:37.320 --> 0:22:40.119 who caught him, was also known to be a hunter, 0:22:40.960 --> 0:22:44.880 having secured long term rights to hunt in Glen Cullen Forest, 0:22:45.520 --> 0:22:49.600 not far from where his survivor was found. He knew 0:22:49.640 --> 0:22:53.720 the place like the back of his hand. Given what 0:22:53.920 --> 0:22:57.160 many considered to be the practice nature of the abduction 0:22:57.640 --> 0:23:01.160 and the fact that Murphy had traveled almost thirty kilometers 0:23:01.320 --> 0:23:04.960 from his home to Carlo Town before driving back to 0:23:05.000 --> 0:23:08.199 his own patch as it were, to commit the crime, 0:23:08.760 --> 0:23:13.320 suggested to police that he warranted further investigation as a 0:23:13.400 --> 0:23:20.040 suspect in the disappearances of Annie McCarrick, Jojo Dullart, Deirdred Jacob, 0:23:20.600 --> 0:23:26.800 and potentially a dozen more women. During his incarceration, Murphy 0:23:27.040 --> 0:23:30.040 was scheduled to speak to the police about several of 0:23:30.080 --> 0:23:34.119 these disappearances, but failed to show for the interview after 0:23:34.200 --> 0:23:38.040 his lawyer pulled him away at the last minute. Another 0:23:38.080 --> 0:23:42.520 reason for Murphy's suspected involvement in these cases came about 0:23:42.640 --> 0:23:46.399 after a fellow inmate of Murphy's in Port leechh prison 0:23:46.960 --> 0:23:50.359 was heard to remark that he had enough to quote 0:23:50.640 --> 0:23:56.160 put Murphy away for a very long time. As it happened. 0:23:56.640 --> 0:24:01.240 In July nineteen ninety six, Murphy was working in Newbridge, 0:24:01.320 --> 0:24:05.560 County Kildare, the place where eighteen year old student Deirdre 0:24:05.800 --> 0:24:12.960 Jacobs disappeared from the same month. Officers reviewing CCTV footage 0:24:13.240 --> 0:24:16.479 pulled from the post office the day Deirdre went missing 0:24:16.960 --> 0:24:21.360 got a shock when, about nine minutes before Deirdre appears 0:24:21.359 --> 0:24:25.080 on the tape the last known sighting of her, a 0:24:25.200 --> 0:24:29.440 customer enters the branch who looked a lot like Murphy. 0:24:31.320 --> 0:24:35.080 Larry Murphy was released in two thousand and nine, having 0:24:35.160 --> 0:24:39.000 served just nine years of his fifteen year sentence for 0:24:39.080 --> 0:24:43.600 good behavior. There was no legislation at the time that 0:24:43.720 --> 0:24:48.359 required Murphy to register as a sex offender. When graffiti 0:24:48.520 --> 0:24:53.560 started to appear marking him out around his hometown of Boltinglass, 0:24:53.600 --> 0:24:57.040 he left the country to start a new life in England. 0:24:58.240 --> 0:25:02.640 In twenty eighteen, did Drew Jacob's case was reclassified as 0:25:02.680 --> 0:25:06.479 a murder inquiry because of some new information the Guardy 0:25:06.640 --> 0:25:11.040 had received, including an alleged confession by Murphy to a 0:25:11.080 --> 0:25:16.399 fellow prison inmate. Officers attempted to interview Murphy on a 0:25:16.480 --> 0:25:20.959 voluntary basis, but failed to gain any further information about 0:25:21.000 --> 0:25:32.800 his possible involvement in the various disappearances. If, as some 0:25:33.040 --> 0:25:38.000 senior GUARDI and FBI investigators seemed to believe Murphy was 0:25:38.080 --> 0:25:42.919 responsible for the disappearances of Annie McCarrick, Jojo Dullard and 0:25:43.080 --> 0:25:47.760 Deirdre Jacob, it leaves many uncomfortable questions which have yet 0:25:47.800 --> 0:25:51.639 to be answered. For a start, what happened at the 0:25:51.680 --> 0:25:55.400 dozens of other women who were either murdered or disappeared 0:25:55.520 --> 0:25:59.800 in the Vanishing Triangle over the years, to twenty five 0:26:00.040 --> 0:26:04.200 year old Priscilla Clark and thirty nine year old Linda Cavanah, 0:26:04.880 --> 0:26:08.160 both of whom disappeared on a third of May nineteen 0:26:08.240 --> 0:26:12.840 eighty eight, when Murphy was twenty three years old. The 0:26:12.960 --> 0:26:17.160 pair were last seen horse riding near Enniskerry, County Wicklow, 0:26:17.800 --> 0:26:21.240 and though Linda's body was recovered two days later from 0:26:21.280 --> 0:26:25.560 the River Dargle, no trace of Priscilla has ever been found. 0:26:26.840 --> 0:26:31.159 What about twenty two year old Emelda Keenan of Mount Melick, 0:26:31.640 --> 0:26:34.960 who vanished without a trace from her home in Waterford 0:26:35.000 --> 0:26:40.280 City on the third of January nineteen ninety four. Immelda 0:26:40.400 --> 0:26:44.119 was last seen by her boyfriend Mark Wall after leaving 0:26:44.160 --> 0:26:48.240 their shared flat to go to the post office. Immelda 0:26:48.359 --> 0:26:52.640 left their apartment at one thirty pm, walked down William 0:26:52.680 --> 0:26:56.760 Street onto Lombard Street and was sighted for the last 0:26:56.800 --> 0:27:01.760 time crossing a road by a friend. Was never seen again. 0:27:04.040 --> 0:27:08.359 In Irish mythology, there is a concept known as chachron she, 0:27:09.280 --> 0:27:14.320 known in English as fairy stray or stray sod. A 0:27:14.400 --> 0:27:17.840 stray sod refers to a patch of ground which has 0:27:17.920 --> 0:27:22.880 been enchanted by the she or fairy folk, ostensibly as 0:27:22.920 --> 0:27:27.320 a way of performing mischief on the human race. A 0:27:27.400 --> 0:27:30.639 person who finds themselves in the midst of a stray 0:27:30.760 --> 0:27:37.240 sod will instantly become disorientated, even lost, often in surroundings 0:27:37.440 --> 0:27:41.560 which are otherwise familiar to them. In order to break 0:27:41.600 --> 0:27:45.480 the enchantment, a person must turn an item of clothing 0:27:45.640 --> 0:27:50.000 inside out, thereby confounding that she who trick them in 0:27:50.080 --> 0:27:53.200 the first place. If they want to prevent it from 0:27:53.280 --> 0:27:57.120 happening at all, carrying a nail or salt in your 0:27:57.160 --> 0:28:00.960 pockets is said to ward off the influence of other 0:28:01.040 --> 0:28:06.960 worldly magic. As with most Irish fairy stories, the concept 0:28:07.040 --> 0:28:11.600 of fairy straying is both fascinating and terrifying in equal measure, 0:28:12.160 --> 0:28:16.040 perhaps because, as with the concept of the after life 0:28:16.119 --> 0:28:19.720 in relation to death, it originated in the days before 0:28:19.800 --> 0:28:23.520 modern medicine as a way of explaining the disappearing of 0:28:23.640 --> 0:28:29.560 people who became lost or disorientated and never returned. It 0:28:29.600 --> 0:28:32.639 can be frustrating, then, to have to face down the 0:28:32.720 --> 0:28:38.200 same kind of inexplicable disappearances in the modern age. Because 0:28:38.240 --> 0:28:41.719 we've come to think of ourselves as a progressive species, 0:28:42.080 --> 0:28:45.840 always pushing at the boundaries of science and reason to 0:28:45.920 --> 0:28:50.600 find answers to the questions which baffled our ancestors. It 0:28:50.720 --> 0:28:54.880 is a very particular gnawing that takes hold when for 0:28:54.960 --> 0:29:07.360 all of our sophistication, things remain unanswered. The only thing 0:29:07.440 --> 0:29:10.680 that is certain about the victims of the so called 0:29:10.800 --> 0:29:15.000 vanishing triangle, if they were indeed abducted and murdered by 0:29:15.040 --> 0:29:18.000 a man, is that they will not be the last 0:29:18.320 --> 0:29:22.720 to suffer such a horrific fate. It's been said that 0:29:22.840 --> 0:29:26.280 back in nineteen ninety three, the Irish Gardi were too 0:29:26.400 --> 0:29:32.080 slow to consider a sinister motive for animccarrick's disappearance, because 0:29:32.200 --> 0:29:38.040 essentially that sort of thing just doesn't happen there. Since 0:29:38.120 --> 0:29:42.160 nineteen ninety six, two hundred and sixty seven women are 0:29:42.240 --> 0:29:45.880 known to have been murdered in Ireland by men, eighty 0:29:45.920 --> 0:29:50.280 seven percent of whom knew their victims. It is a 0:29:50.320 --> 0:29:54.719 pattern of endemic male on female violence that is in 0:29:54.840 --> 0:29:59.760 no way restricted to Ireland. In fact, Ireland rates as 0:29:59.760 --> 0:30:04.760 con comparatively low on the internationally recognized Women Peace and 0:30:04.840 --> 0:30:10.160 Security Index for danger. In the UK, it has been 0:30:10.240 --> 0:30:14.080 calculated that a woman is killed by a man every 0:30:14.200 --> 0:30:18.880 three days, and in the US three women are murdered 0:30:18.920 --> 0:30:23.840 by men every day. And these are just the crimes 0:30:23.880 --> 0:30:29.240 that are solved. For the families of those like Annie McCarrick, 0:30:30.000 --> 0:30:35.840 Jojo Dullart and Deirdre Jacob, whose fates remain unknown, it 0:30:35.920 --> 0:30:39.000 isn't so much that their loved ones have disappeared from 0:30:39.040 --> 0:30:44.840 the world, but that their worlds have disappeared without the 0:30:44.920 --> 0:30:48.920 answers they so desperately crave. They live in a permanent 0:30:48.960 --> 0:30:54.120 suspension of the natural order of things, perhaps the cases 0:30:54.160 --> 0:30:58.200 of these missing women will remain unanswered for decades more 0:30:58.240 --> 0:31:03.360 to come, their family forever stuck in the most unutterable limbo. 0:31:04.400 --> 0:31:08.960 Or perhaps one day the truth will finally emerge, and 0:31:09.080 --> 0:31:13.560 in some small but vital way, their worlds will come 0:31:13.600 --> 0:31:25.360 back into view. This episode was written by James Connor 0:31:25.400 --> 0:31:30.080 Patterson and Richard McLean Smith. James is a brilliant writer 0:31:30.200 --> 0:31:34.840 and poet. His debut collection of poems, titled Bandit Country, 0:31:34.880 --> 0:31:38.440 Exploring the hinterland between the North of Ireland and Republic, 0:31:38.880 --> 0:31:41.680 was shortlisted for the twenty twenty two T. S. Eliott 0:31:41.680 --> 0:31:44.880 Prize and is out now to buy. Do check it out. 0:31:47.080 --> 0:31:49.680 Thank you as ever for listening to the show. Please 0:31:49.720 --> 0:31:52.320