In March of 1999, Phillip Colgan and his wife Mary walked into Rathfarnham Garda Station and with a story to tell. It would be his first of many., and it would be up to a jury to decide which was true – and who killed Layla Brennan.
This episode was researched and written by Aileen Spearin.
Continue reading “127 – An Unusual Defence: Layla Brennan”In the early hours of 2nd February, 2007, a tragedy occurred on the main street of Arklow, Co Wicklow. A man had been struck by a car and lay dying in the road.
It soon became clear, however, that this was no accident.
But – was it murder?
This episode was researched and written by Aileen Spearin.
Continue reading “125 – Murder by Car: Daniel McDonald”17 year old Siobhan Hynes went out with friends to the small village of an Cheathru Rua on the night of Sat 5th December 1998. She never made it home.
Siobhan’s body was found the following day, on the foreshore of a nearby beach.
How could something like this happen in such a small, isolated community?
This episode was researched and written by Aileen Spearin.
Continue reading “124 – Siobhan Hynes: Murder Most Foul”In the summer of 2005, Celine Conroy decided to pack up her three kids to spend the summer in Spain alongside her partner Paul Hickey. But rather than a relaxing escape from her life back in Dublin, the holiday ended in horror.
This episode was researched and written by Aileen Spearin.
Continue reading “123 – Death in the Sun: Celine Conroy”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 January of 2016, people started to find body parts wrapped in shopping bags on a stretch of the Grand Canal in Co. Kildare. To gardai, this looked like a gangland hit. But when the remains were identified as 33 year old Kenneth O’Brien, it was quickly determined that he was not known to be involved in anything illegal.
Why was Kenneth O’Brien killed?
This episode was researched and written by Aileen Spearin.
Continue reading “121 – For Reasons Unknown: The murder of Kenneth O’Brien”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”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
Continue reading “118 – Raonaid Murray (from the Guilt Trip Archives)”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?
Continue reading “117 – The Burden They Carry: The murder of Marie Kilmartin”