Deirdre Jacob missing twenty years Today.

smelly sock wrote: »

Its not to far off the mark with irish policing as we have seen over the years.

Everyone's an expert on the internet. Strangely not too many infallible in the real work world, we all make mistakes at some point. Even Garda with the best intentions will make errors but in general they are up there with the best

Chief Supt Sutton told Independent.ie yesterday he believed there were people who had information about Deirdre’s disappearance at the time but chose not to come forward.

I can't believe there would have been a single person willfully have been hiding information about this for LM since 1998. I don't think he has any person in his life from that time for the last 17 or 18 years!

There was a lot of archaeological finds because of the dry weather this summer making foundations visible where they weren't before. I'm wondering would the same principles have applied to a burial site in fields/woodland?

So 2 weeks after the 20 year anniversary of the disappearance of this girl the Gardai suddenly change the status of this case to a murder case ? I think this is kite flying by the gardai , pure and simple.

If as has been written, the chief suspect is in the UK and would be collared the minute he stepped on to Irish soil then why dont the gardai extradite him based on the 'new information' that has come to light ? Extradition exists in the EU so why not employ it in this case, subsequent to employing a european arrest warrant?

No I dont believe the gardai have anything other than hearsay and conjecture to work on, primarily because the person who committed this crime most probably worked alone and divulged details to no one.

The dogs in the street have implicated the chief suspect for years, a case strengthened by the apparent cessation of these disappearances during his incarceration and his subsequent departure from the country.

Sadly I dont share peoples' confidence in Irish law enforcement or the judicial system. This chief suspect was only caught because he was literally caught red handed but two local men who could identify him and even at that stage he only served 9.5 years in jail and has been free to roam ever since.

The reclassification of this woman's disappearance to a murder guarantees one thing, that he wont set foot on irish soil willingly again, as for new evidence, I think in the absence of an extradition its sadly nonsense.

coco0981 wrote: »

There was a lot of archaeological finds because of the dry weather this summer making foundations visible where they weren't before. I'm wondering would the same principles have applied to a burial site in fields/woodland?

Yes the same principal most definitely applies.

When soil is disturbed. and later in dry hot weather grass differentiation and soil outlines appear quite well from aerial views.

This is a core facet of historical body searches in the US.

Who's the gob****e that brought Larry Murphy into this... Senior source my hole

coco0981 wrote: »

Jesus I'm not suggesting the Garda have found a body. I was just wondering if there was an opportunity to do some basic visual searches by helicopter/foot in certain areas that the Garda suspect may have been used for burial sites given how the weather was showing up archaeological sites all over Europe

ok that's clearer

may well be - also the water level in lakes etc. would be low

smelly sock wrote: »

I mean overall confidence in AGS has taken a serious battering in the last 5 years or so for various and obvious reasons.

Stuff like the breath test and whistleblower scandal does not mean they have got things wrong in a missing persons/murder casd.

there are 2 other theories on this that have been going around locally for years .
The first is on the road where her house is - DJ would have had to walk past a big halting site on her way home .....something that is never mentioned in any media reports. there was talk locally of 3 people heading to the uk the week after she disappeared from there.

The Lm connection seems to be pushed by the media - her parents have stated that he never worked in their shop and the story of the cheque stub being found in her granny files after she passed away are not true. What is true however is that at the time LM was working on 2 local pubs.....but where DJ lives would be the complete opposite direction for his route home.

There was also a story about a unusual activity and noise coming from an area of the curragh on the night she went missing ...just last week the guarda helicopter was in that area flying really low and they looked to be mapping it . I happened to be out when I spotted them and couldnt figure out what they were doing ...but now that makes more sense- i headed home after about 30mins and they were still going over and back on the same area .

There was another criminal at large at about the same period; a person later arrested, (in 1999) and charged with the murder of Phyllis Murphy in 1979. Guilty on DNA evidence and jailed. Dunno where he is now.
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/former-soldier-sentenced-to-life-for-murder-of-kildare-woman-1.1103512
That person lived in Kildare and was familiar with the Curragh (after being in the Army if I remember rightly).
He was still at large at the time Deirdre disappeared.

All this is knowledge on public record. He was considered the only other strong suspect for the disappeared women - but again, there was no evidence at that time. That may have changed!

reg114 wrote: »

Lots of speculation but you must follow the evidence. No similar disappearances since the chief suspect's incarceration and departure from the country. None. Unless the gardai extradite him back to Ireland the upgrade to a murder investigation is meaningless. The chief suspect is the chief suspect for good reason given the nature of the crime for which he was convicted, his local knowledge and the timeline before, during and since he was caught. As someone else said, the likelihood of there being two individuals capable of such heinous crimes operating in the same small geographical area during the specific years in question is remote.

Oh, but there were - see second-last post, by me. It's a coincidence but it is true!

ongarboy wrote: »

I wouldn't underestimate the Irish ability for silence, denial and looking the other way. How many abuse victims have had family members deny or suppress what was happening in front of them, or worse, vilify the victim over the offender?!!

Completely different! The Murphy's have completely disowned Larry to the extent that he was excluded from the list of bereaved family members of his mothers death notice 3 or 4 months ago! There is absolutely no chance whatsoever that any of them, or anyone else in his life from 1998 have been hiding anything for him. None!

Laois_Man wrote: »

Completely different! The Murphy's have completely disowned Larry to the extent that he was excluded from the list of bereaved family members of his mothers death notice 3 or 4 months ago! There is absolutely no chance whatsoever that any of them, or anyone else in his life from 1998 have been hiding anything for him. None!

Completely idle speculation on my part, but I'm wondering if any family members or family friends came forward with evidence after his (LM's) mother's death? Something that they didn't want to reveal while she was alive, perhaps to protect her from further distress? I mean, it's hard to image that anything would be shocking after what he's been convicted of already, but Irish family dynamics can be strange.

coco0981 wrote: »

Jesus I'm not suggesting the Garda have found a body. I was just wondering if there was an opportunity to do some basic visual searches by helicopter/foot in certain areas that the Garda suspect may have been used for burial sites given how the weather was showing up archaeological sites all over Europe

The historical sites that were found are thousands of years old. There would be hundreds of thousands of body sized holes dug around the countryside since then.