Unsolved Irish Mysteries.

[quote]In the Deirdre Jacob case:

"On January 21 gardaí questioned a middle-aged man who claimed he had given a lift to a young woman answering Deirdre's description on Tuesday July 28 from Clane to Carrickmacross in Monaghan. In a number of anonymous phone calls to gardaí and to local media, the man insisted the girl was Deirdre Jacob. On several occasions gardaí appealed to him to come forward so they could eliminate him from their inquiries. Finally gardaí traced the man and found his claim was untrue. It was a lavish hoax."

"But for the four months gardaí tried to track the man, Bernadette and Michael Jacob went in search of Deirdre around the border area retracing their daughter's visit to Cavan and her movements. Every weekend they made the journey northwards. There was a kind of hope in their search. They were devastated to learn that it had all been for nothing.'

I read somewhere else that this 'witness' had recently lost a daughter and his own grief had somehow led to him to making this story up.[/quote]

Interesting. Also the case of the unfortunate Dean Lyons, who 'confessed' to murdering two women.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grangegorman_killings#:~:text=On%20the%20morning%20of%207,5%20Orchard%20View.

Just watching these RTE news reports from the time, the general public would have had no reason to think that the Johnnie Foxes sighting was anything other than genuine.

https://www.rte.ie/archives/2023/0330/1367177-annie-mccarrick-search/

https://www.rte.ie/archives/2018/0403/951845-annie-mccarrick-missing/

I'm almost certain that the IT did an interview with an ex boyfriend of Annie McCarrick a few years ago. I can't find it online now though.

In any case, it looks like the gardai have nothing here. It's reported that all they got from the interview overseas is that the suspects alibi wasn't fully watertight, that's all - the individual wasn't given up. The search of the house therefore seems to be a shot in the dark perhaps based on the typical disposal of a body being at a location close and familiar to the perpetrator.

https://www.irishtimes.com/crime-law/2023/03/18/remembering-annie-mccarrick-our-baby-brothers-girlfriend-30-years-after-she-disappeared/

This one?

In 1993, most people would have watched RTE news and checked out a newspaper if not daily then now and again. So it's not difficult to perceive of a narrative whereby people came forward with honest but mistaken sightings along the lines of 'now that I think of it, I did see a girl who looked like that on 44/18/in Enniskerry/in Johnny Foxes' around the day she was reported missing.' One mistaken sighting may have inadvertently triggered others, not due to anything malicious but due to AGS putting too much on the Johnny Foxes alleged sighting.

i wouldn't rule out the searching of that property showing something of significance...if the killing of Annie mccarrick was planned...she could be anywhere...if it were a accidental killing ... people panic and more likely to go with a place they know.

I would be discounting a body under the extention. He would have to dig down a metre plus for the grave not to come to light during the extension building process. Digging a grave to bury someone is not easy. To go down beyond a metre takes serious effort nowadays they use mini diggers mainly to dig graves. It hard going with a shovel pick and crowbar. There is other tools that make it easier such as a digging fork.

I suspect Annie's body is elsewhere and unlikely to be found

JoJo was trying to get home though if I'm not mistaken, not heading out to an unknown destination. Annie was already at home as her last confirmed sighting.

I was replying to someone who had earlier expressed certainty that the Gardaí know who killed JoJo. They don`t. There are too many loose ends. They took what they know to be cast iron i.e. she got to Moone and they arrested the guy who drove her that far and simultaneously searched his property and found nothing. It`s exactly what they are doing now with Annie`s dodgy ex. Give them a shake and see if something falls out.

The last confirmed sighting of Annie was on the bus to Enniskerry by an individual who knew her. Maybe they`ve come up with something new but if so the media don`t know what it is and the Sindo headline at the weekend was outrageously speculative and not supported by anything in the article itself.

If her remains were found at the property...the suspect/suspects would have some explaining to do...I think gardai had no other option but to organise this property search

Has the woodland site in Wicklow mentioned in that article ever been searched? It could be nothing to do with this case but open up another case entirely

Would it really be feasible to bury a body in that garden in a residential setting and not been seen or noticed by anyone?

How long would it have taken to dig such a grave if he was using a shovel? Would someone else living in the house itself not notice? Unless of course they were in on it.

Seems far fetched to me but I’m not too familiar with that part of Clondalkin so maybe I’m wrong.

I suspect that when anyone who grew up in Dublin happens to commit a murder (not that I've ever done it) they must immediately think of the mountains.

They're so near, yet full of remote locations. Forestry plantations, heathery moorland, streams and lakes.

It really is the traditional place for dumping bodies! So many have been found there - and some never found.

If you have the use of a car at all, losing a body in the Dublin or Wicklow hills must be much, much easier than digging a deep grave or even a shallow one in your own back garden in the suburbs, and hoping that nobody notices.

The sea is another easy possibility - many have committed suicide off Howth and their bodies just float out and are never seen again. If you tied a weight on…well, let's not be too graphic. But you get the idea.

That article says the brothers alibi was that they were away and had rental car records.

“The brothers were spoken to by detectives in 1993 but they were reported to have had an “airtight alibi” involving rental cars and being away the weekend Ms McCarrick disappeared.”

If the brothers interviewed in 93 were both away for the weekend, how did one brother (the guy in France) turn up for dinner with his girlfriend? Unless it was a third brother that was interviewed back in 93.

Of course if the brothers had rented cars that weekend, all the bus sightings could be a red herring. Nothing to say Annie didn’t travel somewhere by car yet all news reports focussed on buses and walking.