US Identify Suspect in Murder of American in Ireland

[Ladybbird]

FBI to Travel to Ireland in Bid to Solve Disappearance of Annie McCarrick in 1993

FBI believes the 26-year-old's disappearance in County Wicklow is linked to a serial killer.

Irish Central, 8 JUL 2020




FBI agents, lawyers, and private investigators will attempt to solve the New Yorker's disappearance, believed to be linked to a serial killer, as Irish article raises new leads.



A law enforcement team, including a lawyer and FBI agent, will travel to Ireland later this year to try and solve the mystery of the 1993 disappearance of 26-year-old student and Long Island, New York native, Annie McCarrick.

In 1993, the American student was last seen taking a bus to Enniskerry, County Wicklow. Her father, John, spent years trying to find out what happened to his daughter. He died in 2009 without finding any answers.


Fresh Leads

New leads have come to light following an article in the Irish Independent earlier this week, which stated that investigators would be taking "one last roll of the dice" in attempting to solve the missing person's case.

Michael Griffith a New York lawyer, from the same area as Annie's family, came to Ireland following her disappearance in 1993 to aid with the investigation.

Speaking to The Pat Kenny Show on Tuesday, Griffith said "I am pleased to announce within the last 15 minutes, thanks to Catherine Fegan's article, I received an email from an Irish citizen with a very, very promising lead.

"We're going to investigate this lead and see whether it's credible or not.

"I can't go into it obviously at the time, but this article did produce something that's got to be followed up.

"The individual who sent me the e-mail was very friendly with someone who knew Annie at the time.

"The Gardaí {Irish police], I don't know whether they went into this particular lead, but we are going to go into it.

"It's something, as a seasonal criminal defence lawyer, which should be looked at".

Investigators will be aided by Brian McCarthy, a private investigator who was hired by the family when Annie went missing.

McCarthy has recently been made aware of a witness statement given to Irish police in 1993 which changes the possible whereabouts of Annie McCarrick on the night of her disappearance. Unfortunately, the witness has since died.

The statement states that a woman matching Annie's description was seen at a cafe in Enniskerry, which means she may not have visited the popular venue Johnnie Fox's Pub in Glencullen as previously thought.

The witness said she saw a woman matching Annie's description in a cafe with a man who fits the description of a suspect which McCarthy has identified.

He told the Belfast Telegraph that the witness "was not asked to help with an e-fit. We think this sighting is more crucial than initially thought.


Serial Killer?

Former FBI agent Kenneth Strange who is working the case also knows the McCarrick family.

He said: "The first thing I did was approach Mrs. McCarrick and I said 'do you have a complaint on file with the FBI?', and she surprisingly she said that she did not.

"So I made sure that she was able to file a complaint which launched an investigation.

"We were able to send some agents from the Behavior Analysis Unit - BAU - that's kind of the 'Silence of the Lambs' people - over to the UK to look further into the matter.

"So since then, I've taken a very active interest and I've been in touch with the Gardaí and with journalists like yourselves and been very active".

"I think what we can bring to the table is a fresh set of eyes on a case that has grown stale.

"I believe that this is the work of a serial killer, the geography suggests that.

"I've heard some other theories - possible involvement by maybe someone from the IRA - but things like that, having worked in the government, and you know as well as I do try to keep a secret is a very difficult thing to do.

"I think if there was a conspiracy afoot, that information would have gotten out by now.

"So I think it's closely-guarded by possibly a lone serial killer".


Annie McCarrick's Disappearance

In 1993, 26-year-old Annie McCarrick was living and studying in Dublin. She lived in the woody suburb of Sandymount with two of her friends at the St. Catherine's Court apartment complex.

On Friday, March 26, 1993, Annie told her friends she might go for a walk Wicklow or in the Glencullen area. At c.11am she bought some groceries at Quinnsworth, on Sandymount Road. She returned home and left her groceries on the kitchen table.

At 3.15pm she took the bus from Sandymount to another Dublin suburb, Ranelagh. She went on to take the number 44 bus from Ranelagh to Enniskerry, in Wicklow.

There was no bus from Enniskerry to Glencullen. She would have had to walk the 6km to where it was believed she was seen next, Johnnie Fox’s pub at Glencullen.

The Long Island student was officially reported missing by her mother who traveled to Ireland on March 30, 1993.

Irish police are appealing for witnesses to come forward. Friday, March 26, 1993 was a cold, wet, and windy day.


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Ireland's missing persons in the "Vanishing Triangle"

Gardaí appeal for help in search for missing 23-month-old toddler

[Ladybbird]

US Investigators Identify Main Suspect in Murder of American Annie McCarrick in Ireland

Annie McCarrick vanished on 26 March, 1993, and was last seen in the Wicklow town of Enniskerry.

Irish Central, 22 SEP 2020.






Private investigators probing the murder of American woman Annie McCarrick in Ireland in 1993 believe they have identified a suspect responsible for her murder.

Michael Griffith, a New York-based lawyer hired by the McCarrick family in the 1990s to assist with the investigation, and Kenneth Strange, an ex-FBI agent, believe that they have uncovered new evidence which could potentially lead to a breakthrough in the 27-year-old case.

Annie McCarrick vanished without a trace on March 26, 1993, and was last seen in the Wicklow town of Enniskerry. She is presumed murdered, but the trail has gone cold.

Now, however, investigators are hopeful that they have finally cracked the case.

Griffith traveled to Dublin earlier in September to meet with members of An Garda Síochána about the investigation and said that the meeting was positive.

"We spent almost two hours talking about the case and we have agreed to share information," Griffith told the Irish Independent.

Griffith said that he is hopeful he can finally get justice for the McCarrick family after a number of people contacted him and Strange about the case following an appeal for information.

While almost all information led to dead ends, information from one source appears to be the key to cracking the case, Griffith said.

"In the case of this person, the details provided could lead to the breakthrough we need. They gave specifics relating to one individual that warrants careful investigation."

Griffith said that he couldn't go into specifics about the information but said that the witness's account tied in with information provided by a separate witness.

Griffith said that the second witness did not formerly give evidence to the gardaí at the time of McCarrick's disappearance, but he believes that her evidence is more important than originally thought.

A woman named Margaret Wogan, who has since died, is believed to have seen McCarrick with a man in a cafe in Enniskerry on the day of her disappearance.

Wogan, who worked in Poppies Cafe in Enniskerry, told gardaí at the time that she saw a man approach McCarrick in the cafe and offer to buy her a slice of cake.

She never gave a formal statement about the incident but told her daughter about what she saw. Now, the team of private investigators thinks that this piece of information could be crucial to solving the mystery of McCarrick's murder.

"The pieces of the puzzle are slowly coming together," Griffith said.

He said that the investigators were now focused on one particular suspect and urged anyone with information to get in touch.

The American team of investigators is also working with Brian McCarthy, an Irish-based private investigator who was hired by the McCarricks when their daughter went missing.

Griffith and his team are also working with John Covell, Annie McCarrick's uncle, to help bring closure to the McCarrick family.

Annie McCarrick's father John died in 2009 with no idea of what happened to his daughter.

McCarrick's disappearance was highly-publicized and she was the first of eight women to vanish in the Leinster area in the 1990s in a series of attacks that were thought to be connected. She was last seen taking a bus to Enniskerry in County Wicklow on March 26, 1993, and disappeared close to where Larry Murphy lived at the time.

Murphy, who was later convicted of rape, was one of the chief suspects in her disappearance and was a person of interest in all seven other disappearances.