28 year old mother of one Norma Crotty appeared on her neighbours doorstep early on the morning of January 3rd, 1995. She was in a distressed state, and was holding a shotgun. It was smoking.
Norma told her neighbour that she had just shot her husband.
This episode was researched and written by Aileen Spearin.
Continue reading “132 – Nagged to Kill: The death of Gary Cotter”In the early hours of 29th November, 2002, 34 year old father of two arrived home from working his shift as the security manager at a popular nightclub in Limerick City.
He was shot to death in his driveway in a suspected gangland killing.
Would gardai be able to find enough evidence to bring members of one of Limerick’s most notorious gangs before a court?
This episode was researched and written by Aileen Spearin.
Continue reading “129 – A Battle for Justice: The murder of Brian Fitzgerald”On a chilly Sunday morning in December of 1980, Michael Kelly arrived at a neighbours house in a panic. There was a fire in the house he was staying in nearby, and inside were the two elderly siblings who he was there to look after.
Sadly, Margaret and Martin Glynn – siblings in their 80s – were removed from the house and pronounced dead.
But was this a tragic accident, or a malicious act driven by greed?
This episode was researched and written by Aileen Spearin.
Continue reading “128 – A Questionable Conviction: The deaths of Margaret and Martin Glynn”On the night of the 11th Nov, 2003, Patricia Conroy frantically searched the small midlands town of Mountmellick for her 14 year old son Darragh. He wasn’t answering the new mobile phone he’d just received and he hadn’t come home when expected.
Ms Conroy had no idea that hours earlier, Darragh had crossed paths with a schoolmate – 16 year old Darren Goodwin – and her son would not be coming home.
This episode was researched and written by Aileen Spearin.
Continue reading “122 – Darragh Conroy: the mobile phone murder”In June of 1991, 21 year old newly-wed Alison Shaughnessy was found lying in a pool of blood at the entrance to her flat in London by her husband John. After a stalled police investigation, two women were arrested and tried for Alison’s murder.
But is it possible that what was presented to the court as motive for her murder, gleaned from a 21 year old woman’s diary, had pointed police in the wrong direction?
Who killed Alison Shaughnessy?
Continue reading “120 – Dear Diary: The murder of Alison Shaughnessy”Mary Boyle disappeared from a swampy field next her grandparents home in an isolated part of Donegal in 1977. She disappeared without a trace, and her case has become the longest running missing child case in Ireland.
In forty years, the case has seen only one arrest and also has been linked with notorious Scottish child-killer Robert Black, and has drawn the attention of controversial media figures. But, through all that, Mary is still missing, and her mother still prays daily to know what happened to her.
Continue reading “119: Missing Mary”In December of 1997, 53 year old bachelor farmer Tom Clisham was found dead in his cottage in Galway. He hadn’t been seen in some time, and his body was in such a bad state no visual identification could be made.
It seemed some sort of fight had occurred in his home – but over what, Gardai had no clue.
Who killed Tom Clisham?
Continue reading “116 – Tom Clisham’s Body”Before the sun had even risen on the morning of Christmas Eve, 1995 Julia O’Brien was discovered dead on the floor in her home in Drimoleague, Co Cork.
Julia was well known locally, as was her problem with alcohol but no one would have thought that the 46 year married mother of five would die after a severe beating and strangulation.
What had happened?
Continue reading “115- Flawed Relationships: The killing of Julia O’Brien”In June 1997, Patrick Sammon was murdered in his home in Galway in the course of an argument.
What had led to the fight that night would be a story of two very damaged individuals and circumstances one lawyer said were “stranger than fiction”.
Continue reading “114- Damaged Individuals: The murder of Patrick Sammon”On the morning of 26th March, 2013, a car entered the water at Arklow pier. Only one of it’s occupants emerged from the freezing, rough water. Was it a terrible accident? Or a plan to murder?
Additional writing, research and editorial support from Eileen MacFarlene