In February of 2015, 16 year old Becky Watts was reported missing by her family. A city – wide search ensued for the shy and socially anxious teenager.
But it would turn out that Becky, and the answers about what had become of her, would be found much closer to home than initially thought.
Continue reading “66 – A Family Destroyed: The murder of Becky Watts”Gangs and drugs effect nearly every community. But in 2012, the Dublin suburb of Tallaght was shocked by the spillover of violence. 16 year old Melanie McCarthy McNamara was shot while she sat in the back of a parked car on a residential street. The gunman had shot from the back of a black SUV and sped off immediately.
Two men alleged to be involved in drugs locally were identified by gardai, and after protracted court battles have found themselves in prison in relation to Melanie’s killing.
Continue reading “58 – Murder by Mistake: Melanie McCarthy McNamara”1990 was a decade of missing women. We remember the names of the unfound – Annie McCarrick, Eva Brennan, Jo Jo Dollard, Deirdre Jacob.
The names Patricia McGauley and Mary Cummins were once on that list. These two women disappeared from Dublin in the space of a year, and it wasn’t until a large scale review of cases of missing women from Dublin that a startling link was discovered between the two women. Both of them had unknowingly spent time with a predator: Michael Bambrick.
Continue reading “56 – Predator: The deaths of Patricia McGauley and Mary Cummins”In 1987, Brian McGrath disappeared. His wife, Vera, said he’d gone to Holland to find work. That he was abusive and delusional. But 6 years later, their eldest daughter Veronica told police that her mother, and her fiance at the time, had beaten Brian McGrath to death and buried and burned his body at their home in Coole, Co. Westmeath.
Who murdered Brian McGrath?
Continue reading “47 – Family Secrets: The death of Brian McGrath”Celine Cawley was a model, a former bond girl, an advertising producer and a successful business owner.
But in December of 2008, she was attacked in her own home and died of her injuries. Her husband, Eamonn Lillis, said that there had been an intruder in their exclusive Howth home, but was he telling the truth?
Continue reading “42 – Danger at Home: The Killing of Celine Cawley”In September of 2006, Melissa Mahon (14) went missing in Sligo Town. She was supposed to in the care of the Health Service, but she had developed a habit of running away. That summer, she had met some new friends. The Dunbar girls. And through them, their father, Ronnie Dunbar. Nearly two years later, Melissa’s remains would be found in the nearby River Bonet after a shocking confession of her friend.
Continue reading “40 – Chaos, Neglect & Abuse: The Killing of Melissa Mahon”On the afternoon of the 6th January, 2005 Robert Holohan rode his brand new silver BMX bike down his drive and out onto the roads of Ballyedmond, a townland north of Midleton in rural East Cork.
When Robert didn’t return home that evening, and had not answered his new phone, a search began that would bring people from all over the country to the area to volunteer to look for the 11 year old, alongside the Gardai and the army. But, just over a week later, Roberts body was found in a deep ditch, caught up in brambles, alongside Inch Strand. He was 12 miles from his home.
The Garda investigation worked quickly, and it soon became apparent that Robert had not gotten far from home, before he was killed.
Continue reading “33 – The murder of Robert Holohan: Broken Trust”