The myth of Ireland’s ‘vanishing triangle’

Women who disappeared, assumed murdered, in the east of the country during the 1990s have become something of a fascination for the public and the media. The latest iteration comes in the shape of a two-part series, Missing: Beyond the Vanishing Triangle, set to begin on RTÉ One on Monday night.

Its focus on Annie McCarrick in the opening episode has received the predictable saturation media coverage. Other murders to be featured include those of other women whose cases were reviewed by the Garda under Operation Trace, as well as another group of women victims whose killings were linked to the so-called vanishing triangle phenomenon.

Operation Trace was a Garda inquiry established in 1998 tasked with exploring possible links between a number of disappearances, including those of Fiona Sinnott, Josephine Dullard, Deirdre Jacob, Ciara Breen, Fiona Pender and Annie McCarrick.

The other killings set to be explored in the new RTÉ One series are those linked to the ‘vanishing triangle’ phenomenon, a media creation rather than a Garda theory. Those women include Imelda Keenan, Phyllis Murphy, Patricia McGauley and Mary Cummins.

The murder inquiry into the 1993 disappearance of Annie McCarrick - is it making progress a year on?

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Photo of Annie McCarrick thought to be last image of her on day she disappeared in 1993 was taken 11 days earlier

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Six Silent Killings: Ireland’s Vanishing Triangle - a British perspective on futures never lived

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Could the disappearance of Annie McCarrick finally be solved?

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[ Nancy McCarrick: ‘It makes a huge difference that Annie’s case has been upgraded to murder’ ]

The vanishing triangle is simply a name given by the media to a vast area where a series of unrelated murders, all of women, took place from 1979 to 1998.

Only three of the cases have been solved, with convictions secured. But for the majority of the remaining killings, gardaí have a firm suspect – with arrests, searches and excavations carried out. However, none of the remains of the women have been found and no charges have ever been pressed, mostly for lack of evidence.

[ Enniskerry ‘sightings’ of Annie McCarrick now deemed unreliable with gardaí focused on Dublin 4 ]

[ Remembering Annie McCarrick, my brother’s girlfriend, 30 years after she disappeared ]

In many of the cases, the investigations were botched from the start, usually by gardaí unwilling to treat them as murders. As a result of that reluctance, the cases never got the attention and resources they warranted. That lax approach gave the killers a head start and meant forensic and other physical evidence was lost, while witnesses were not interviewed when their recall was freshest.

The reluctance by gardaí to treat the disappearances as killings usually arose because, without human remains, there was no proof the women had been killed.

Garda sources said better-run murder investigations over the last 20 to 25 years mean most homicides are now solved. They added that because murder inquiries have become more effective, it is much harder now to conceal a murder by secretly disposing of a body than it was even in the late 1990s.

“The reality is that most murders are solved now using technology that just wasn’t around when these killings took place,” said one Garda source. “Mobile phones are a big one now for evidence as well as things like CCTV, cameras on roads and even wifi and laptops. You have a lot of technical evidence about the victim and a suspect and their movements from the get-go. So you’ve a big head start now compared to what gardaí would have had even back in the 1990s.”

Of the “vanishing triangle” victims whose cases are set to feature in the RTÉ One series, the 1991 and 1992 murders of Patricia McGauley (43) and Mary Cummins (36) in Dublin have both been solved. The women were killed by Michael Bambrick, Ms McGauley’s common-law husband. The killings were sexually motivated, with Bambrick dismembering the remains and burying them at locations in west Dublin – in a council dump and field – less than 2km apart.

Likewise, the murder of Phyllis Murphy in Co Kildare in 1979 has also been solved. The 23-year-old was last seen alive in Newbridge, Co Kildare, on December 22nd of that year. Her body was found four weeks later in a wooded area in the Wicklow Gap. She had been strangled and raped. Some 23 years after the crime, advances in DNA technology linked John Crerar to the killing. A former Army sergeant from Kildare, he was later convicted.

Of the six women whose cases were reviewed under Operation Trace, only Annie McCarrick’s remains a mystery. The 26-year-old was last seen alive in Sandymount on March 26th, 1993. There have been reported sightings of her in Enniskerry, Co Wicklow, on the day she vanished. However, gardaí have grown to question those reports and have refocused their investigations on Dublin 4 where she lived and was last seen alive.

Josephine ‘Jo Jo’ Dullard (21) from Callan, Co Kilkenny, vanished in November 1995 while hitching home from Moone, Co Kildare. Gardaí have long had a chief suspect in the case who they believe may have taken her life in an opportunistic murder.

Fiona Pender (26) was seven months pregnant when she vanished from her home in Tullamore, Co Offaly, in August 1996. Gardaí believe she was killed by a man known to her but while several arrests have been carried out, no charges have even been brought. A woman contacted the Garda in 2016 with information about the chief suspect, leading to searches being carried out for Ms Pender’s remains on lands in the midlands but nothing was found.

Ciara Breen was aged 17 years when she vanished from her home in Dundalk, Co Louth, in February 1997. A man almost 20 years her senior, and also from Dundalk, suspected of her murder died in custody a number of years ago. He was previously arrested as part of the investigation into Ms Breen’s disappearance.

Fiona Sinnott was 19 when she vanished after leaving a pub in Broadway, Co Wexford, in February 1998. A man she had known was suspected of her murder and while five arrests were made in 2005, no charges arose.

Deirdre Jacob was aged 19 years when she vanished from outside her home in Newbridge, Co Kildare, in July 1998. Convicted rapist Larry Murphy remains the chief suspect for her murder. While a file was sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions, it decided last year no charges could be brought against him.