GARDAI investigating the mysterious disappearance of Annie McCarrick in 1993 have today arrested a man on suspicion of murder and launched a new search of a house and garden in Clondalkin.
The update marks a significant breakthrough in the case after the Garda cold case investigation uncovered a litany of errors in the original investigation.
The original probe led to a narrative surrounding Annie’s final movements, which has since been revised in parts following more recent garda inquiries, with confusion around the last confirmed sightings of the American woman hampering the probe for at least 30 years.
Gardai have disproved a number of sightings of Annie over the last three decades since the investigation into her disappearance was upgraded to a murder case in 2023.
A new investigation team was also appointed after this change of approach.
A man, in his 60s, was this morning arrested on suspicion of murdering Annie, who was last seen on March 26, 1993 in Sandymount, Co Dublin.
He is currently being detained under the provisions of Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act 1984 at a Garda station in Dublin.
The suspect can be quizzed by detectives for up to 24 hours, excluding rest periods.
Gardai have also sealed off a property in Clondalkin, west Dublin.
The DMR South Central divisional search team, supported by the Garda National Technical Bureau, will examine “elements of the house and garden” throughout the day.
A temporary restricted airspace has been put in place by the Irish Aviation Authority in respect of the search area.
The force stressed that the current residents of this home are not connected in any way with Annie or her disappearance.
WHAT IS KNOWN ABOUT DAY ANNIE LEFT?
The last confirmed sighting of Annie McCarrick is on the morning of Friday, March 26.
Annie, who lived in St Cathryn’s Court in Sandymount with two other tenants at the time of her disappearance, spoke to both of her flatmates before they left separately to travel home for the weekend.
The Long Island native had been making plans for her mother Nancy’s visit the following week and arranged a dinner party with friends for Saturday.
Annie, now alone in the shared apartment, never showed up to work on Saturday, was not home when pals called to her flat for the planned dinner that evening, and was not at work again on Sunday.
She did not even show up to her workplace, Café Java, to collect her wages.
A pal called to Annie’s apartment on the evening of the March 28 and spoke with her two flatmates, who had returned after a weekend in the countryside.
Groceries that had been purchased by Annie on the morning of March 26, in Quinnsworth on Sandymount Road, had been left unpacked in shopping bags in her apartment.
Among the shopping were perishable items such as butter and milk, but Annie did not put the shopping away.
A receipt found in the bag puts the time of purchase at 11.02am that day, marking the last confirmed activity of Annie McCarrick.
The concerned friend reported her missing at Irishtown Garda Station on Sunday evening, March 28.
WHY WAS THE PROBE HINDERED?
The last known sighting of Annie has caused some confusion in recent years.
The focus of the investigation has switched from Enniskerry, Wicklow, and Glencullen in south Dublin, back to Sandymount.
CCTV footage of Annie queuing at the AIB bank on Sandymount Road shortly before 11am on the Saturday had been long regarded by both the investigation team and the public as the last confirmed sighting of the missing woman.
However, it has since emerged that gardai believe the date provided for the footage was incorrect, and Annie had visited the bank 11 days earlier.
Officers originally believed Annie may have travelled to Wicklow on the day of her disappearance, but struggled to find witnesses to confirm this.
A post office worker said she believed she may have sold stamps to a girl matching Annie’s description but, without CCTV footage, this was never confirmed.
During an RTE documentary on Ireland’s Vanishing Triangle a woman named Una Wogan said her mother Margret had been working in Poppies Cafe on Enniskerry’s Square on that Friday.
Una claimed her mother had said she was sure the last people she served at around 4pm that day were Annie and a man.
However, gardai never took a statement from Margret at the time.
This may have been due to the fact that if Annie had boarded the bus at 3.30pm – as they were investigating at the time – it would have taken over an hour for her to reach Wicklow.
Gardai have since confirmed they do not believe the 26-year-old made a trip to Wicklow on the day of her disappearance.
A doorman of Johnnie Fox’s pub in Glencullen reported seeing Annie leave the boozer that evening with a man.
But this sighting is now believed to be false.
The pub would have been around 6km from Annie’s apartment, with no public transport available between the two locations, meaning Annie would have had to walk on a dark and wet night.
WHERE DID SHE GO?
Investigating officers now believe Annie may not have ever left Sandymount.
Annie spoke with a soft Irish-American accent and gardai believe she was in the possession of a large brown leather bag when she disappeared.
Gardai upgraded the case to a murder investigation in 2023 after new evidence emerge.
Detective Superintendent Eddie Carroll said at the time that gardai are “satisfied that it is more likely now that Annie came to a foul demise”.
Simon Harris, who was Minister for Justice at the time of the reclassification of the case, said gardai are absolutely clear that there are people with information on Annie’s murder who have yet to speak to cops.
He said: “She was somebody from the States who had come to Ireland, who had fallen in love with Ireland, who had studied in Ireland and had returned to live here permanently.
“And her dad died without ever knowing what happened to his beloved daughter and her mother, Nancy, has every right to know what happened to her daughter.
“The gardai have been working extremely hard on this to carry out so many interviews and indeed visited Nancy in New York.”
WAS ANNIE ASSAULTED?
In 2023, it was claimed that Annie’s friends had alerted gardai in 1993 that she had been assaulted weeks before she disappeared.
The man friends claimed had “struck” Annie was known to her.
This information had never been in the public domain.
Speaking in the RTE documentary Annie’s aunt Maureen Covell said: “I was told something in confidence that someone that Annie had known had struck her when they were in a drunken state.”
Annie’s childhood best friend Linda Ringhouse revealed she and other pals and relatives sent faxes to gardai from the US just over a week after the student went missing to highlight their fears.
But investigating gardai said they never received the faxes sent from New York.
FAMILY’S HEARTACHE
ANNIE McCarrick’s heartbroken family have continued to appeal for any information that could help them locate the body of the missing woman.
Originally from New York, Annie visited Ireland on a school trip as a teenager and her parents said she fell in love with the country.
She moved to Ireland permanently in January 1993.
She was the only child of her father John, who passed away in 2009, and mother Nancy.
Speaking to RTE News in 2023 from her home in Bayport, Long Island, New York, Nancy McCarrick said she didn’t think it was “remotely possible” that Annie could still be alive.
She said: “I did for a very, very, very long time but not after 30 years.”
The mum said Annie “loved it in Ireland” and that it is her “wish” to be able to bring her daughter home again.
Annie’s family has been “full appraised” of today’s developments in the case, an arrest and a new search in Dublin.
A garda spokesperson said: “An Garda Siochana has and will continue to keep the family of Annie McCarrick fully updated in relation to this investigation.”
It’s understood the faxes were found by new investigators assigned to the investigation alongside correspondence relating to the case at a later time.
Former Garda Detective Tom Rock, who led the Annie McCarrick missing person’s incident room, said the faxes would have taken the investigation in a different direction.
He said: “These faxes never came into the possession of the investigation team. I was never aware of these faxes.
“They definitely would have taken the investigation in a different direction.”
Annie’s heartbroken mother Nancy said they were “totally unaware” that Annie had been assaulted by a man known to her.
She said: “She hadn’t let us know about it. I guess she thought she could handle it herself and things would be all right.”
IRA KILLING THEORY
There have been multiple claims made and theories probed around who may have killed Annie in 1993.
A claim that a member of the Provisional IRA may have killed the American student was made in a book published in 2014.
Retired detective sergeant Alan Bailey, who was national co-ordinator of Operation Trace, said one line of inquiry which should be pursued was whether Annie met the IRA man at Johnnie Fox’s pub in Glencullen in the Dublin mountains.
However, gardai now believe Annie had not even been at the pub on the night of her disappearance.
Bailey, who authored ‘Missing, Presumed’ told RTE’s Today with Sean O’Rourke the information from a “very reliable source”, was a story that “needs to be checked out”.
COULD IT HAVE BEEN A SERIAL KILLER?
In recent years it was claimed Spanish serial killer Antonio Angles may be a suspect in Annie’s disappearance and murder.
The murderer was wanted over the November 1992 kidnap, rape, torture and murders of three teenage girls near Valencia.
Angles was identified as a stowaway on a British-captained container ship who fled Portugal for Dublin after escaping a massive police manhunt in Spain.
He would have reached Dublin just before Annie McCarrick disappeared without trace.
In 2023, retired Garda Detective Sergeant Alan Bailey, who was centrally involved in the investigation told a Spanish TV programme about the fugitive’s escape from police and the mystery of his current whereabouts.
He said: “I would say Antonio Angles will remain a person of interest until he can be definitively ruled out and we know what happened with Annie McCarrick.
“Antonio Angles needs to be traced, investigated and ruled out of the inquiry if he wasn’t involved. The fact he has never been located means he will be a suspect always.”
DOES SOMEONE HAVE INFORMATION?
Over the past three decades, detectives have discovered and collated over of 5,000 documents and reports, taken in excess of 300 statements of evidence and retained a number of exhibits.
Gardai believe someone who has not come forward about the investigation may have information.
They urged anyone with information, “no matter how small or insignificant” they may think it is, to make contact with the investigating team.
A garda spokesperson said: “Gardai also appeal to anyone that may have previously come forward but who felt that they could not provide gardai with all of the relevant information they had in relation to this matter, to please make contact with An Garda Siochana again.
“With the passage of time they may now be in a position to speak further with the investigation team.
“Any information will be welcomed by the investigation team, and will be treated in the strictest confidence.
“The investigation team can be contacted at Irishtown Garda Station on 01 666 9600 or anyone who wishes to provide information confidentially should contact the Garda Confidential Line: 1800 666 111.”
Gardai pictured outside the house in Clondalkin being searched this morning[/caption]
