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
On 25th September, 2001, 28 year old German tourist Bettina Poeschel took a train from Dublin to Drogheda, Co Louth. She wanted to visit Newgrange – an ancient monument in the Meath countryside. She decided to make the 10km walk from the town to take in the countryside while there.
But Bettina never made it to Newgrange.
She had disappeared into thin air.
Continue reading “107 – The Day Trip: Bettina Poeschel”In August of 2005, 23 year old Ann Walsh was found dead in the grounds of the parish church in Kilrush, Co Clare. Gardai made an arrest shortly after the discovery – Raymond Donovan, Ann’s former boyfriend.
Donovan admitted to gardai that he had killed Ann, but denied her murder. Would the jury agree?
Continue reading “106 – Unintended: The murder of Ann Walsh”In July of 1993, 17 year old Tracy Butler was set upon and stabbed to death while walking home in what appeared to be a random act of violence. But as gardai began investigating the case, they began unravelling a complicated web of relationships – ones which had turned sour.
Continue reading “105 – Vendetta: The murder of Tracy Butler”57 year old Rose Farrelly was found dead in her own home on the morning of the 15th February 1993. It appeared that the house had been broken into, and then the single woman had been beaten, sexually assaulted and strangled to death.
The trial for Rose’s murder was the first in Ireland to use DNA evidence.But the reason for Rose’s murder remains unclear – it appears the answer may be the most frightening of all.
He did it because he could.
Continue reading “104 – Brazen: The murder of Rose Farrelly”On Christmas morning, 2008, 81 year old widow Maire Rankin was not answering the phone. Family members called around to her Newry home to check on her – not only had she been recently ill but it was totally out of character for her to not respond.
When they arrived at the house on the Dublin Road, Maire was found dead on her bedroom floor. The house was a mess, and it appeared that Mrs Rankin had been subjected to a violent assault of a sexual nature.
No one expected it when Maire’s 42 year old neighbour was arrested. Not only was Karen Walsh a woman, she was a wealthy pharmacist who stayed in her second home in Newry on the weekends.
What on earth had happened, and was the mother of one really responsible for the death of the elderly woman?
Continue reading “103 – A killing at Christmas: The murder of Maire Rankin”In early May, 1996 – three women were killed violently in their own homes in separate incidents across Ireland. It all occurred in the space of three days.
In fact, 1996 would go on to be the year with the most violent deaths of women in recent history.
There has been a lot of progress in relation to equal rights and protections for members of the LGBTQ+ in Ireland. However, despite decriminalisation in 1993, and the passage of Marriage Equality in 2015, there is still much to do. In addition to requiring effective hate speech legislation, the defence of provocation does allow a person accused of murder to claim that a romantic or sexual advance by an LGBTQ+ person resulted in a loss of control leading to the killing of that person.
In this episode, we explore cases where this partial defence was employed at trial and appeal: the killing of John Roche in 1982, the murder of Gerard Hackett in 2002, and the kidnap and murder of Matthew Shepard in Wyoming in 1998.
Reasearch & Writing by Eileen MacFarlene of the Crimelapse Podcast
In 1988, Anne Gillespie was 18 years old. She was looking forward to embarking on adult life. There was just one problem – her boyfriend of over three years had begun to behave horribly. She decided to end things. Her boyfriend, 22 year old John Gallagher, decided that if Anne would no longer speak to him, he’d kill her.
John also shot Anne’s mother, Annie.
No one could have predicted it, nor could they have known about the 24 years the two families would spend in and out of court.
Continue reading “98 – A Question of Disorder: The murders of Anne & Annie Gillespie”
7 years apart, two young and vulnerable teenaged girls went missing – Arlene Arkinson in Co. Tyrone, Northern Ireland in 1994 and Hannah Williams in London in 2001.
The similarities in their cases were no coincidence, but would their murderer ever truly face justice?