Detectives have finally upgraded a 30-year-old missing person case to a murder inquiry.
Annie McCarrick had been living in Dublin when she vanished just days after her 26th birthday. Shortly after the New Yorker would have turned 56, officers also revealed they recently travelled to the US to tell Annie’s 79-year-old widowed mum Nancy of the developments.
Announcing the move yesterday, Detective Supt Eddie Carroll vowed to resolve the case for Annie’s elderly mum. He said: “We are satisfied it is more likely now that Annie came to a foul demise.
Read more: Annie McCarrick: Exact timeline of events as gardai launch murder probe
“Her mother deserves to know what happened. She has been waiting 30 years for answers.
“I, and the investigation team, are determined to gather all information to find answers and bring the matter to a conclusion. I have made this commitment to Nancy and her family.”
Annie’s dad John died in 2009 without knowing the truth of what happened to his daughter. It was announced the decision to upgrade the inquiry was “based on the entirety of the information available to the investigation team”.
A senior investigating officer has been appointed to lead the probe. Det Supt Carroll did not disclose the specifics but confirmed it involved forensic techniques not available 30 years ago.
He also revealed the same techniques were involved in the reopening of the 1984 Kerry babies case. But a senior detective in the original case last night said he told his superiors at the outset of the investigation that she had been murdered.
Alan Bailey, who was the liaison officer to the family, added her mum has long believed her only daughter was killed. He also outlined a line of inquiry linked to an IRA member who killed Annie and fled to America.
Mr Bailey, who retired in 2011 said: “We recommended at the time that Annie’s disappearance should be upgraded to murder.
“We were satisfied there was no reason for her to leave home of her own freewill and we believed the evidence warranted a murder inquiry. The new decision to launch a murder investigation could mean fresh information or recent developments.
“I spoke with Nancy and I’m sure they will be happy that this crime is now being treated as murder. It is a positive move and they will be delighted with this because they want Annie’s remains to be recovered and to have somewhere they can go to remember her.”
Annie’s case has been one of the most high-profile Garda investigations in recent decades. Officers collated more than 5,000 documents, reports and exhibits and recorded in excess of 300 statements.
Det Supt Carroll indicated the public should not assume the murder upgrade means the case is solved. He said their help is needed and appealed for information and for people to contact gardai.
Det Supt Carroll appealed to anyone who may have spoken with Annie “but who haven’t yet spoken to gardai or who may have already spoken to gardai but were not in a position to tell everything they knew at that time”.
He added: “I want to speak with any person who has any information on the large brown handbag which it is believed that Annie was in possession of when she went missing.”
Justice Minister Simon Harris said the decision to “reclassify the missing person inquiry into a murder inves-tigation” was based on a variety of reasons.
He added: “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.
“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.
“Gardai have been working extremely hard on this to carry out so many interviews and, indeed, visited Nancy in New York recently.
“They’ve made a decision for a variety of reasons to upgrade that to a murder investigation.” The last images of Annie were caught on CCTV at a bank in Sandymount, Co Dublin, on March 26, 1993.
There were then reported sightings of Annie boarding a bus for Enniskerry, Co Wicklow, plus more at Johnnie Fox’s Pub in the Dublin mountains. Mr Bailey fears she could have met her killer in this pub.
He told the Irish Mirror: “One of the lines of enquiry was that an IRA man from the North was around Johnnie Fox’s at that time. He was prominent in the IRA and Annie, who was a very attractive woman, was very much sympathetic regarding Irish freedom.
“The suspicion was he said things that he should not have, and mentioned names, and that he panicked. The suggestion at the time was that he killed Annie to silence her.
"Her mother Nancy was told this at the time. It has been very hard for the family.”
Annie was reported missing by a friend on March 28, 1993, at Irishtown Garda station. Her mother Nancy arrived into Dublin for a scheduled visit two days later on March 30 and then also filed a missing person concern with gardai.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Irishtown Garda station on 016669600, any Garda station, or the 1800 666 111 Garda Confidential telephone line.
Det Supt Carroll said: “I appeal to any person who has information relative to Annie’s murder not to assume we know and/or that it has limited value. Let us make that decision.”
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