120 – Dear Diary: The murder of Alison Shaughnessy

On By mensreapod@gmail.comIn affair, Cold Case, Controversial Case, Domestic Violence, Intimate Partner Violence, Irish Crime, Life Sentence, love triangle, murder, UK Crime, unsolved, Vintage murder, Women Who Kill, Wrongly Accused

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?

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119: Missing Mary

On By mensreapod@gmail.comIn Child Victim, Cold Case, Controversial Case, Irish Crime, Kidnapping, murder, Serial Killer, unsolved

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.

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118 – Raonaid Murray (from the Guilt Trip Archives)

On By mensreapod@gmail.comIn Child Victim, Cold Case, Irish Crime, murder, unsolved

On the night of the 3rd of September 1999, Raonaid Murray was walking home through Dun Laoghaire and Glenageary in South Dublin.

As she took a short cut through a quiet laneway, she was attacked.

Her murder has never been solved.

Research Assistance by Eileen MacFarlene

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117 – The Burden They Carry: The murder of Marie Kilmartin

On By mensreapod@gmail.comIn Cold Case, Irish Crime, murder, unsolved

In December of 1993, 35 year old Marie Kilmartin got a phone call. Then, she left her house and never returned.

Marie’s body was recovered some six months later, in a bog 25 km from her home in Portlaoise. She had been strangled.

Why would anyone want to hurt this friendly, vulnerable woman?

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116 – Tom Clisham’s Body

On By mensreapod@gmail.comIn Cold Case, Controversial Case, Irish Crime, murder, unsolved, Wrongly Accused

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?

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115- Flawed Relationships: The killing of Julia O’Brien

On By mensreapod@gmail.comIn Controversial Case, Domestic Violence, Intimate Partner Violence, Irish Crime, Kids who Kill, murder

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?

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114- Damaged Individuals: The murder of Patrick Sammon

On By mensreapod@gmail.comIn Controversial Case, Domestic Violence, Intimate Partner Violence, Irish Crime, Mental Health, murder, Povocation, Self Defence, Women Who Kill

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”.

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112 – A Terrible Thing: The murder of Marie Buckley

On By mensreapod@gmail.comIn Child Victim, Irish Crime, Life Sentence, murder, sex crimes, Vintage murder

On 9 November 1970, in the little village of Clonroche, Co Wexford, a young girl went missing. Just a few hours later her body was found dumped in a field not far from her home, and the main street of town.

The only certain thing at the outset of the investigation into 9 year old Marie Buckley’s murder was that this terrible thing had been done by someone local. 

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111 – Unsolved: The killing of Belinda Pereira

On By mensreapod@gmail.comIn Bonus Episode, Domestic Violence, Drug-related, Intimate Partner Violence, Irish Crime, murder, sex crimes, unsolved

On the 29th of December, 1996, Gardai were called to a flat on Liffey St in Dublin city centre. Inside was the body of 26 year old British-Sri Lankan woman, Belinda Pereira, who was staying in Dublin for just a week. The nature of her trip prompted many inches of tabloid fodder. She had come to Dublin in order to carry out sex work. 

But the voyeuristic media attention on Belinda’s case did not last long. 

Sadly, today, her name is all but forgotten. 

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