The handbag carried by missing Annie McCarrick may have been handed in to a Garda station shortly after she disappeared.
A member of the public posted on a missing persons website that he found the bag behind a Dublin pub in 1993 and brought it to a station.
But it appears there is no record of this taking place although it is understood that gardai are investigating this claim.
READ MORE: New Annie McCarrick murder suspect 'lived in same Dublin neighbourhood' as digs may begin in days
Gardai have upgraded the investigation into the American’s disappearance to a murder probe.
They issued a fresh appeal in relation to the brown bag she had when she vanished on March 26, 1993.
The bag could provide investigators with vital evidence as to what happened to the 26-year-old and could even help catch her killer.
The man who posted the messages on a missing persons website in 2021 claimed he found the handbag behind Keily’s pub in Donnybrook.
He said a friend then brought it to Donnybrook Garda station after finding cards indicating that it belonged to Ms McCarrick.
In the post he stated: “We weren’t cops or detectives. We just handed it in to P Station [police station].
“I presume it was dealt with and kept. Cards of Annie were in the bag.”
It is understood that the recipient of the message has since tried to contact the sender but has been unable to trace him. It has now emerged that gardai are also trying to trace the man and checking to find out if there is any record of a bag being handed in.
The last confirmed sighting of Ms McCarrick was captured on CCTV, shortly before 11am on the day she went missing, at the Allied Irish Bank on Sandymount Road close to where she lived in Dublin.
There were also reported sightings in the Sandymount Green area, of her boarding the number 44 bus bound for Enniskerry in Co Wicklow, and a sighting in Enniskerry village and at Johnny Fox’s pub in the Dublin Mountains.
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