All language subtitles for s01e01MISP

Gardai are still checking on
information

supplied by members of the public

in response to Garda...
..the search has all

the hallmarks of a murder
inquiry.

..the family say her disappearance
is totally out of character.

This is a story in two parts.

..to her family, she never
arrived...

Throughout the 1990s,

a series of young women vanish
without a trace.

..the American student Annie
McCarrick disappeared...

..Someone knows...

..Patricia McGauley...
..Mary Cummins...

..found traces of blood in the
house.

Now Gardai believe Deirdre Jacob
was killed....

If there is no body, then you
have no crime scene.

Leaving their families in the
dark.

We had a call that Annie was
missing.

I was 4 years old when my mam
never came home.

Looking for answers.

It was as if she had disappeared
into thin air.

In three of the cases,

there were very good suspects.

A false alibi hindered the case
greatly.

Most of these cases remain
unsolved decades later.

Raising fresh questions about how
they were investigated.

What were they appealing for? She
was giving them the information,

but nobody came to get it from
her.

Is this a missing case,

or is it a murder case?

What else could they have missed?

Today Gardai upgraded the Anna
McCarrick case to a murder
inquiry.

Prompting fears that the same
killer may have abducted some of
these women.

There could be a serial killer
roaming Kildare, Dublin, the
mountains.

Dumping their bodies.

# (music)

Within an area that becomes known
as the Vanishing Triangle.

It's Friday the 26th of March 1993.

A young American woman gets on a
bus towards Wicklow.

She has plans with friends over the
weekend.

And is excited about a visit from
her mother.

But the 26 year old never keeps
those plans.

Annie McCarrick vanishes without a
trace.

She is the first of a number of
women to go missing

in a five year period, whose
bodies are never found.

In time, some of these cases will
provoke fears of a murder triangle

stretching from Dundalk in the
north, to Wexford in the south,

and Tullamore in the midlands.

My name is Nancy McCarrick and
Annie was my daughter.

Oh yes Mom, I can fit in a white
dress now.

I feel so stupid looking at this
camera.

I'll look at you instead.

There.

Um...

"Most people now think I'm Irish.

Can I have the keys, Mom?"

Oh sure.

Annie was my only child.

"I don't know what to do. What do
I do?"

Well, talk to Nana and Poppa,
yeah.

Um...

Okay, let's be natural about this.

That was funny.

She was funny.

Yeah, she was very reliable.

She was conscientious.

She wasn't fearful.

Can't wait to see ya at Christmas.

Couldn't find fault with
Ireland.

..maybe a sunshower or something
outside.

Saw a double rainbow the other
day.

Hi Mom.

Let's go, Annie!

A day after she is last seen
alive,

Annie's friends begin to worry.

She has failed to turn up for a
prearranged dinner in her apartment
at evening.

24 hour later, one of those friends
contacts Gardai to report her
missing.

It is Sunday the 28th of March.

Val Smith is one of the first
detectives the scene.

I remember it well.

The groceries was there. She was
after doing shopping that day.

And I dunno why a girl would go
out and do shopping

and leave the shopping there if
she didn't intend coming back.

The girls said she was very solid,

and she didn't seem to be a girl
that was just going to go missing.

Detective Tom Rock also joins the
investigation.

She made no contact with anybody
over the weekend of the Friday,
Saturday, Sunday.

You have people going missing for
all sorts of reasons.

But in this case, there was
absolutely no reason for Annie
McCarrick to go missing.

Gardai examining
financial records discovered...

Gardai quickly establish a
timeline of her movements.

..because Annie McCarrick is
wearing the same jacket,

carrying the same handbag, and
wearing her hair...

On the day she disappears, Annie
visits the AIB bank in Sandymount.

Where she is captured on CCTV

before going grocery shopping in a
nearby supermarket.

..Gardai can place her in Ranelagh
at 3:30,

when she took the 44 bus to
Enniskerry.

The last sighting of Annie
McCarrick was getting on the bus.

At 3:40.

Going towards Enniskerry.

And that was Annie seen by a
person who knew her from work.

And she saw her going upstairs,

and getting on that particular
bus.

For her family in New York,

Annie's disappearance is completely
out of character.

Maureen Covell is Annie's aunt and
confidante.

I would try to be the mature older
sister, although an aunt.

And talk her through different
things here and there.

It was very scary, and obviously,

even more so being 3,000 miles
away.

Was no real way to track her, so
things were very confusing,

and we were trying to decipher

if she was behaving completely out
of character.

Our suspicions and worries were
heightened very quickly.

Within hours of hearing her
daughter is missing

Nancy decides to act.

No one had seen or heard from her
since Friday.

So I booked a flight on Aer
Lingus

as soon as I could and I went
over to Ireland.

I arrived on the following
Tuesday.

Went to see the Garda, we asked
them to investigate

her disappearance.

They really felt she could very
easily have gone off on an
adventure.

And I said, "No, living in Ireland
was her dream,

and her adventure.

She would certainly not be out on
her own any place else."

But they did explain that because
of her age,

they had to wait a certain period
of time

before they could actually
start looking for her.

By now, frantic with worry

and unhappy with the pace of the
Garda investigation,

her family organise their own
searches.

If they couldn't start looking, we
would.

If Annie sees this, what would you
like to say to her?

Let us know where she is. She
doesn't even have to do that.

Just let us know she's alright.

Annie's father John, and her
uncle,

also John, arrive to help
with the search.

She was seen taking the 44 bus
down to Enniskerry...

News report:
For Annie McCarrick's family,

it's been a living nightmare.

The first couple of days was just
trying to get a sense of where she
might have been.

We did a lot of just kind of on
our own, um...

We went up to Powerscourt,
Enniskerry.

We tried to retrace any steps we
thought Annie might have made.

..some clue
as to her whereabouts.

And I remember spending time
walking through the woods,

and walking through the hells.

Annie McCarrick's mother had been
due to visit

her daughter a few days
after she went missing.

But this morning her father was at
pains to prep the Gardai,

and the public for all their help.

John and John Covell were meeting
with the Garda,

and asking them to please, please
start a search for her.

..that for John
McCarrick and his wife Nancy,

the waiting goes on.

The Garda, they were empathetic,
sympathetic.

Nobody was rude or dismissive,
but it's just,

you know, "Give it time, give it
time." Um...

That didn't satisfy us.

A week after she is reported
missing,

a Garda incident room is
established.

In total, there would have been 50
detectives allocated.

And I took charge of that incident
room.

Meanwhile, the family continue
their attempts to locate Annie.

They hire a respected private
detective named Brian McCarthy.

We were able to compile quite a
good image and a description,

and that was put out in posters
all across Dublin city.

DART stations, bars, restaurants,

the usual places where people
would congregate.

The McCarricks also canvassed
locals in Enniskerry village.

This soon yields results.

Annie McCarrick, who
was living in Dublin,

got a bus to Enniskerry on March
26th,

she bought stamps at the local
post office at about 4 o'clock...

The post mistress tells them she
sold stamps to a woman

fitting Annie's description on the
day she disappeared.

Gardai say the search will
continue here

for the next few days.

Gardai appeal for anyone who may
have received post from Annie to
contact them.

Nobody came forward and said they
had received

any letter or postcard in the
post.

As a result of that information
which was provided by the post
mistress,

we also did a mass canvas on
Enniskerry and its surrounds.

And nobody again came forward.

Then a breakthrough.

Sam Doran, a doorman at Johnnie
Fox's Pub

deep in the Dublin Mountains
recalls seeing Annie there.

The girl - she came in and she
strolled over just to about there.

And at that stage, I just caught
her by the arm and said, "Sorry,

love, there's a cover charge in
here."

At that stage, she stopped.

And she looked in her bag as if
she was looking for money,

but wasn't like as if she was
going to get money.

At that stage, the chap behind, he
said, "I'll get that."

That was a sighting from a
description,

and from photographs shown
to him.

This evening, the
Gardai released a computer fit
of the man.

He's in his mid 20s, between 5'9"
and 5'10",

with dark brown hair...

The whole focus of the
investigation then,

for a good couple of weeks,

switched to Johnnie Fox's and its
surrounds.

We established a mobile
communication centre out there.

And we issued questionnaires to
everybody,

and we sought anybody who was in
Johnnie Fox's that night

to come forward and assist us in
our investigation.

She indicated that she was going
to Enniskerry in County Wicklow

for a walk. But despite expensive
Gardai inquiries...

..and John McCarrick from...

The McCarricks' search for their
daughter

attracts widespread media
attention.

Senior US politicians lobby the
Irish government

to allocate resources to the
investigation.

By now, almost 50 detectives are
involved.

But it still remains classified as
a missing persons case.

We gotta keep looking, gotta keep
hoping.

That's all we can do.
That's what

I think a father and
mother have to do.

You know?

Uh...

We won't give up hope.

John was the front man.

I felt at the time that anything

that put her name forward was
fine.

Today, hundreds of
volunteers turned up

to try to find some trace of
Annie McCarrick.

The search was directed by the
Dublin Mountain Rescue Service,

who left people in no doubt about
how grave the situation was.

Em...

you're searching for a missing
person today,

in whatever shape or form that
may take.

You're also looking for any item
of either clothing,

or I believe Annie had a large
shoulder bag.

Despite extensive inquiries, and
searches,

no further trace of her has been
found in that area...

Despite weeks of detailed searches,

detectives fail to corroborate the
sighting of Annie

in Johnnie Fox's on the night she
disappeared.

We couldn't find any trace of
Annie McCarrick

in Johnnie Fox's, other than the
sighting by the doorman.

On the way in.

We couldn't prove or disprove that
she was there.

That doorman was a solid, good
witness. And I was impressed with
him.

You say she wasn't in Johnnie
Fox's?

She certainly, I presume, was up
around Enniskerry area anyway,

so we were in the right general
area where she was last seen
anyway.

Sure it'd have been lovely if we
had gotten people to come forward

to say that she was in Enniskerry
that day.

Nobody ever came forward to say
she was anywhere else.

But could vital clues have been
missed 30 years ago?

This is Una Wogan.

Her late mother Margaret was
working in Poppies Cafe

in Enniskerry village on the day
Annie disappeared.

This is her first broadcast
interview.

My mam never doubted that she saw
Annie McCarrick

with a man in Enniskerry the day
she went missing.

Mammy went forward and spoke to a
detective.

And I'm very curious as to why
the guards never followed up,

never contacted her to get more
details.

On the 26th of March, the
day Annie disappeared,

she was seen
getting on a bus for Enniskerry.

26-year-old Annie McCarrick has
disappeared without a trace.

"Her disappearance remains a
mystery."

She has gone missing in an area
that will in time become known as
the "Vanishing Triangle".

The Garda search is in Enniskerry in
Co. Wicklow

and the nearby Johnnie
Fox's Pub produce no new leads.

"She had a drink here in
the Dublin Mountains, then she
mysteriously vanished."

"Since Annie disappeared, her bank
cards have not been used."

But has something been missed?

This is Una Wogan.

On the day Annie disappeared, her
mother Margaret is finishing a shift

in Poppies Cafe in Enniskerry
Village.

My mam told me that she was 100
percent sure that Annie was in
Poppies with a man that afternoon.

My mam had a very good description
of the whole interaction she had
with the couple who came in.

She could describe everything about
them and she conveyed that to us.

At the end of her shift, she was
ready to go around 4 o'clock

but she had stayed a little bit
over.

The American woman came in with a
man and they ordered some food.

She served them and that was the
last person she served that day
before she left.

Two things I do remember very
clearly that the man was shorter
than Annie

and that he had a square face.

The jaw was quite square lined,
the whole face, so that's what
stood out to her about him.

Mammy's description was that he was
a bit gruff.

She was much more friendly and
smiley and he was a bit gruff.

He didn't really speak.

Teams of detectives in Enniskerry
Village are eager to talk to anyone
who can place Annie there.

Una's mother reports what she has
seen.

A detective came in and asked did
they have any information about
Annie.

This is some time after she
disappeared.

Mam sat down at the table in
Poppies and gave a full account of
the interaction she had

and why she thought it was Annie.

She thought it was odd that he
didn't write anything down

but she assumed that somebody would
come and take a statement from her.

But that never happens.

She never doubted herself.

She thought it was strange that
nobody came, even to disprove it.

It niggled at her and she repeated
it many times.

The last conversation I had about
it with her was 2018.

She said one of her biggest regrets
was that she saw Annie's parents on

the town clock when there was a
re-enactment being filmed.

She wanted to go over and say to
them, I'm sure I saw your daughter

but because they were surrounded by
guards and other people,

she thought maybe her story was
disregarded so she didn't go over

but she said she regretted that.

For those involved in the
investigation,

Margaret Wogan's sighting at Poppies
Cafe is puzzling.

I can say for definite that was not
brought to the notice of an
investigation team.

I was managing the incident room.

It is strange because whoever that
person was and if that incident
happened

again that would have been followed
up and investigated to a
conclusion.

Una Wogan says that her mother
attempted to contact Gardai again

after seeing a public appeal for
information.

But nothing happened.

She felt then that maybe what she
remembered didn't fit into the
narrative

and maybe that's why the
guards didn't come back to her.

They had certain information and
the timeline or the narrative
didn't fit.

We were stone mad looking for a
witness that would say that she saw
Annie McCarrick in a cafe.

She would be so valuable.

Even if she didn't report it to the
incident room, if she reported it
to any guard

or detective, they would pass it
on. Why wouldn't you pass
information like that, sure.

Frustrated by the lack of an
official response,

in July 2020, Una Wogan shares her
mother's story with the McCarricks'
private investigator Brian McCarthy.

If this lady had given a member of
the Garda information that she

believed she seen a female and a
male in Poppies Cafe,

are there other people who have
given information that's never been
followed up on,

that could well provide an answer
to some of the questions we are
asking.

My mam passed away in 2020.

But in 2021, the guards contacted
me and came and took a statement
from me,

which was a secondhand statement
really. I couldn't give the details
that my mam could.

She wanted to get her story out
there and thought it might help.

She felt for Annie's mother. She
has five daughters of her own.

There was an appeal after appeal
every year, every 10 years, every
anniversary.

What were they appealing for?

She was giving the information but
nobody came to get it from her.

There are other questions about
Annie's disappearance that trouble
her family.

Her room was mostly a big huge
brass bed that we laid around on

and chatted and listened to music
and did silly things that teens do.

Linda Ringhouse is one of Annie's
closest childhood friends.

Anne was my first and oldest best
friend

from four years old on.

Anne and I lived close until she
was 12 years old.

After that the family bought a
beautiful house on a canal

in the next town over.

Linda visited Annie in Ireland
shortly before she disappeared.

It was a magical time.

Really got to see her in her new
element.

Why don't you all come move over
here?

It's great over here.

You'd love it!

Back in the United States, a few
days after Annie disappears,

Linda and Annie's aunt Maureen
contact her close US friends

to see if they might know something.

What they hear alarms the family.

They now begin to wonder if Annie
has been taken by someone she knows.

We found out from her friends that
she had been having

quite a bit of
difficulty with someone she knew.

We were totally unaware of that.

She hadn't let us know about it.

I guess she thought she could
handle it herself and things would
be alright.

She had confided that someone she
knew was harassing her.

She had confided that she
messed up bad

and that she had been with this
person a week before she went
missing.

Maureen also discloses some
disturbing new information.

I was told something in confidence
by Anne, that someone that Annie
had known had struck her,

when they were in a drunken state.

These things were coming out as we
were all brainstorming on what
could have happened.

I wanted to make sure that
information was put out there,

should it be pertinent to any
investigation or suspicions.

Deeply concerned, they decide to
act.

Four or five of us each faxed our
statements over.

The faxes are sent to the B and B
in Dublin where Annie's uncle John
Covell is staying.

He is certain he passed this
information on,

including the reference to Annie
having been struck.

Immediately we took that right to
the Gardai and gave that to the
Gardai.

None of the information in these
faxes is made public at the time.

Meanwhile, the Garda and media focus
remains on Johnnie Fox's and the
surrounding area.

As the searches continue, Annie's
family and friends begin to wonder

if the Gardai are looking in the
wrong place.

I don't think she was at Johnnie
Fox's that night.

She was very chatty, she really
liked to have conversations and
meet people.

Between her beauty and just how
kind she was and she was an
American,

there would have definitely been
more than just a doorman
remembering her.

The media say Annie McCarrick was
in Johnnie Fox's.

People believed she was in Johnnie
Fox's

and then it itself grew legs.

No-one else could verify Annie was
there.

No-one seen her outside Johnnie
Fox's, no-one seen her get into a
car at Johnnie Fox's.

No-one put her in any place near
Johnnie Fox's,

at any time on that particular day.

One of the things that's really
frustrating is that we were never
contacted by the Garda,

regarding our faxes and some of the
information we put in.

Information that to us was very
telling at least.

Something to be questioned but it
never happened.

As far as I can remember.

But might there be another reason
for this?

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.

That is a source of annoyance and
frustration to me

and I would know to be a source of
annoyance and frustration to all of
the investigation team.

Val Smyth was the detective who
questioned the people named by
Annie's family.

He too did not know about the faxes.

I'm not aware that anyone known to
Annie hit her.

There was never any question of
assault on Annie at any time.

Val Smyth is confident the team
fully investigated all leads,

based on the information available
to them at the time.

Anyone I ever took a statement off
in relation to Annie McCarrick,

they were alibied. We'd go back on
everything they said that she was

and where they were and that sort
of thing.

We would either prove it true or
false.

Mr McCarrick will be
meeting senior Garda officers
tomorrow to review the case.

But do they think Annie is still
alive?

No.

As hopes of finding Annie alive
begin to fade, and increasingly
frustrated with the investigation,

the family compile a list of
questions they want answered.

You just don't know which way to
turn.

Or whom to think the worst of.

You're afraid to do that because
you don't want to accuse someone
who's totally innocent.

But then you wonder would they have
hurt her?

Would they have just gone off and
done something totally
unintentional?

At least that way she wouldn't have
suffered.

But you're just left not knowing
anything.

On March 26th, Gardai are
more than 99 percent sure

she was at Johnnie Fox's pub in
Glencullen...

The McCarricks had reservations
that grew in the months that
followed,

when they found that they weren't
getting answers to questions that

they were putting out there and
asking legitimately.

The whole relationship had broken
down and certainly the McCarricks

felt had broken down with the
Garda.

Armed with these questions, the
family attend a meeting with senior
Gardai.

They had a daughter who was missing
and there was questions that needed
to be answered.

John actually made a stamp that he
used for months:

"Someone Knows".

He used to put it on all his
letterheads.

Brian McCarthy is present at this
meeting in Donnybrook Garda Station

It takes place a year after Annie's
disappearance.

The Gardai were sitting across from
us, so it was more inquisitorial.

The meeting turned into a you said,
we said, they said,

in that it was just
finger-pointing.

John himself got a little bit
upset.

He walked out of the meeting.

Eventually, John is convinced to
rejoin the meeting.

The family hoped that the Garda
could have shared some information
with them.

No-one was asking them to share
confidential information.

People were asking them for
specific questions

that could have been a yes or no
answer.

That meeting was confrontational
from the point of view

that Mr McCarrick was quite adamant
that he wanted these questions
answered.

The Gardai were quite prepared to
deal with the questions

and to provide the answers to him
as best we could.

As the meeting concludes, it is
agreed that Tom Rock will meet with

another security expert hired by the
McCarricks,

in the hope that it will address the
family's concerns.

I spent the full day with him and I
gave him access to all of the
statements

and particularly some of the
statements that he wanted

particularly to read.

But one of the things he did was he
expressed total confidence

in the
way the Gardai had investigated it.

I can understand the feelings of
the family

and I can
understand at times their anger and
their discontent with the Gardai.

You have to remember that we were
still looking ahead

that if Annie McCarrick was found
and it was proven that she had died
a violent death,

we would be dealing with a court
case.

A trial

in the Central Criminal Court.

So there was certain issues there
that we could not disclose from
that point of view.

Annie has now been missing for three
decades.

The woman told Gardai
she saw a woman resembling Annie

trying to hitch a lift on the
evening she disappeared.

In the intervening years, Gardai
follow a number of fresh leads

but the mystery of Annie McCarrick's
disappearance remains.

It leaves her family still seeking
answers.

There were many questions that John
and Nancy certainly had and we all
had that...

OK, if there was a person in
Annie's recent past that was
violent towards her,

do you know that person's
whereabouts every minute of every
hour of the day Annie went missing?

Never ever did we get an answer to
that, which was disappointing.

Officially Annie
McCarrick has listed as a missing
person

but privately detectives fear the
most.

"That there's someone out there
could have that vital piece of
information."

Until March of this year, the
disappearance of Annie McCarrick

remained officially classified as a
missing person's case.

"and the file
will remain open until she is
found."

Two days before the 30th anniversary
of Annie's disappearance,

that all changed after Nancy wrote
directly to Garda Commissioner Drew
Harris,

requesting an upgrade.

to a murder inquiry.

This morning I'm making a public
appeal for information.

I want to speak to any person who
met, spoke with or had any

interaction with Annie McCarrick on
the 26th of March 1993.

There is a person or persons who
have information,

who haven't yet
spoken to Gardai or who may have
spoken to us already.

but were not in a position to tell
us everything at the time.

The new team of investigators have
pledged to leave no stone unturned.

Myself and the senior investigating
officer have recently visited

Nancy McCarrick and some of her
family in New York.

I and the investigation team are
determined to gather all

information and evidence available
to us to find answers

and to bring the matter to a
positive conclusion.

We will be exploring all avenues.

It makes a huge difference to hear
that her case has been upgraded to
a murder investigation.

You never know, it might prompt
someone to come forward after all
these years

and as hard as they have worked to
investigate it through the years

and as many programmes as they've
done and newspaper articles,

but it evidently requires that
upgrade in order for a
re-investigation to take place.

Her father John passed
away in 2009 without knowing what
happened to his daughter.

The decision to upgrade Annie
McCarrick's case to murder after 30
years,

gives her family renewed hope.

Because in a murder case, Gardai
have more powers to arrest and
detain suspects.

If there is no body, then you have
no crime scene.

But with the additional resources
and personnel available to a murder
investigation,

an upgrade can sometimes help to
produce real results.

Unlike Annie McCarrick, the
disappearances of two other women

in the early 1990s, initially
attracts few headlines.

Patricia McGauley is reported
missing in September 1991

But her name is not included on the
Garda Missing Persons List that
year.

There's little public reaction to
the disappearance of another woman,

Mary Cummins six months later.

Two years after Annie goes missing,

a young detective uncovers enough
evidence to have the cases of

Patricia McGauley and Mary Cummins
upgraded to murder.

They disappeared within the same
geographical area as other women

whose cases became linked in the
media to a vanishing triangle.

In many ways, their stories have
been forgotten until now.

But with the extra resources and
powers of a full murder inquiry,

Detective John Cribben is able to
bring closure to their loved ones

by catching a killer.

My name is John Cribbin,
in June 1992

I was a detective Garda
in Kevin Street Garda Station

in Dublin city,

and I was investigating the missing
person case of Mary Cummins,

who went missing
on the 23rd of June.

Mary was... was last seen in
Carr's pub on Francis Street.

Thursday evenings, she used to go,

when she'd get her
children's allowance,

she might go one night a week,
just to take a break,

and her friends would look after
her daughter, Samantha.

And, eh, her friends came
at six o'clock in the evening,

collected Samantha, and that was
the last they seen of...

of Mary.

I don't really know much other than
what people have told me,

I wouldn't even remember her voice,
or...

only for I have pictures,
I wouldn't really...

know... anything, at all.

The night she went out, I was with
my mam's friends,

em, and obviously, when she didn't
come back,

they alerted the police.

We felt something suspicious was
going on.

She wasn't a lady that went
missing...

As John Cribbin builds a picture of
Mary's movements

on the day she disappeared,

he hears an unfamiliar name.

One of the customers was an elderly
gentleman, he was ex-British army,

he informed me that he had recalled
seeing Mary in the pub

with her child, and playing with
another child,

of a certain gentleman who was a
caretaker,

he informed me at that stage too

that this particular gentleman's
wife

had, em, left... their family,
and that the information he had

that the wife had gone to
England.

I discovered his name was
Michael Bambrick.

Detective Cribbin begins to
investigate

Michael Bambrick's background,

focussing on the disappearance of
his partner, Patricia McGauley,

in September 1991.

Patricia McGauley was seen
by a neighbour

leaving the house at half eight
one evening.

She knew from the clothes she was
wearing

that it was Patricia McGauley.

She had not been seen or heard from
since then.

He soon uncovers two vital clues.

Michael Bambrick was into
cross dressing.

He... he dressed up as a woman.

This now added to...
to the sighting, that...

of Patricia McGauley, it threw that
sighting, in my mind, into doubt.

Did she ever leave the house?

Was that her that the neighbour had
observed walking out?

A quick glance out, it may have
been Patricia McGauley,

but it could be Michael Bambrick.

He also had a fetish for bondage,

part of it was that he was into
choking his partners...

Finding that information out was
very significant for... for myself,

because I knew this man was...
could be dangerous.

At the time, the disappearances of
both women remained classified

as missing person cases.

There was no law at that particular
time,

that we could take this evidence

and search Michael Bambrick's
house

for Patricia McGauley, now our
problem with Mary Cummins was

we couldn't put Mary Cummins into
the house.

Without a body or a crime scene,

Cribbin's investigation comes to a
standstill.

It's hard to go back to somebody
with no news,

but... but it doesn't mean that
the cases are shut, they're not.

And they're never shut in the minds
and the hearts

of the Gardai involved in them,
because

we take a... a personal...

stake, in... in the investigations.

Two years passed with no new leads.

Then, Cribbin gets a breakthrough.

A young woman

went into Ronanstown Garda Station,

and made serious allegations
against Michael Bambrick.

We also learnt that a woman

answering Mary Cummins's
description

had been in the house,

and the next morning
Michael Bambrick

was seen burning her runners.

At the same house in
Clondalkin

where forensic experts found traces
of blood in the house...

I think it was April '95,

in two days we dug up the garden,

but we found no bodies.

Gardai began digging in a number of
specific...

December 1992, at his home

at St Ronan's Park, Clondalkin...
The dig began after they received

new information... There was a lot
of blood staining found

on timber within a box room.

We were very concerned that we were
actually dealing with

two bodies.

Unfortunately, we didn't find
any... anybody there.

Forensic and ballistic experts were
also involved in the dig...

I just felt another... we'd hit
another stone wall.

Now where are they?

But with the new forensic evidence
now available,

Cribbin's superiors decide to
launch a full murder inquiry.

Once it... it became a full-on,
what we believed

to be a double murder
investigation,

that was a game changer.

Approximately 15 to 20 detectives

of all ranks were now involved in
the investigation,

and this meant that the
investigation could be

broadened, you know, to see
was there any other suspects,

and if there was, to try and either
put them in the picture

or eliminate them... I think we did
500 statements,

and 300 different lines of inquiry.

So the investigation moved from
just...

from my point of view,
a one-man band...

investigation to, now, a full
orchestra of Gardai.

Investigation went right back,

and started off again.

Investigation then comes to its own
conclusion,

not my conclusion.

At the end of it all it was...

we had one suspect.

On the 24th of June 1995,

Michael Bambrick is arrested

and brought to
Kevin Street Garda Station.

He confesses to both crimes.

I was told... he had admitted that
he'd killed them...

the two women, and that he was
going to show us

where he'd them buried.

He showed Gardai
where he had disposed of

the women's dismembered bodies.

He also told Gardai he did not know
how to explain it.

He said he'd panicked... He had
dismembered Patricia McGauley,

put her into black bags,

and with his bicycle, he'd moved
her from the house,

with Mary Cummins
he'd done the same thing,

but it was with a wheelbarrow...

And his... the instruments he'd
used was

a knife and a junior hacksaw.

Officers first discovered the
skeleton of Mary Cummins

in a shallow grave.

Skull fragments believed to belong
to Patricia McGauley

were found a short time later.

These two women weren't buried,

they were literally dumped,

the... as if they were
household garbage.

em...

it was... it was emotional.

Yeah.

You know, I was now able to get
Samantha and the McGauley family,

we were able to tell them what
happened,

and hopefully bring home their
loved ones.

In... in some... in some manner.

Be able to give them closure.

Bambrick received 18 years for the manslaughter

of Mary Cummins, and 15 years for
the killing of Patricia McGauley,

both sentences to run concurrently.

And the judge pessimistically...
We wanted him

to be locked up longer. It...
the problem that the DPP had

was that... we couldn't...
physically prove that he'd...

he'd murdered somebody.
And all we had was

his scenario -
it was more accidental

than pre-meditated murder,
he didn't intend to kill anyone.

I only have one photo of my mother
Mary,

it is from the hospital,
the day I was born, em,

with me father, Luke.

I look at the picture every day,
I have...

the picture up on the wall, em,

and it's nice to have the...
although it's the only one,

it's nice to show the kids that,
listen,

there's your nanny
there's your grandda,

and there's your ma!

Me heart definitely goes out to the
families that

are wondering every day, is someone
gonna come through the hall door?

Are we gonna get a phone call?

Are gonna actually be able to put
closure in our lives, and know...

they're not coming home.

Even though my mam was found

the way she was found,
I have a remains.

I got that closure, and so many
families

like that don't get that closure.

As far as justice or retribution,

I have no interest in it at all.

My fondest wish would just be

to find out what happened to her.

To be able to have a grave to
visit,

eh, it would...
it would be very nice...

to be able to do that.

Mm.

Mm.

As fears grow this
evening for the safety

of Josephine Dullard...
And a widespread search

has been made for some of her
belongings.

We beg of you, please let her go!

Fiona Pender was last seen at her
home...

Fiona was my baby.

And I need to find her.

Two years after Annie McCarrick
disappears,

more young women go missing.
19-year-old mother of one

Fiona Sinnott from Wexford...
Fiona Sinnott disappeared...

Somebody knows where Fiona is.

But we don't.

When 17-year-old Ciara Breen went
missing from her home...

There are people out there that
know.

Deirdre Jacob was last seen in the
town... We're begging

and asking people, the public out
there, to help us.

It actually scares you to think
that

somebody can actually go missing.
Just like that.

Gardai are under pressure.

There's a noticeable change

in people's attitude towards
walking streets at night,

thumbing lifts and things like
that...

As the disappearances generate
headlines...

If you have information, please
make contact with us.

Might the unsolved cases
of Annie McCarrick

and some of the other missing women

whose bodies had never been found
be linked?

The vanishing triangle
captures that.

Six women disappeared, vanished,

without trace,
their bodies never found,

it's scary for the public.

Detectives from Operation Trace

review the cases...
There were suggestions

that there was a serial killer,

and of course we had to take that,
all that, seriously.