A man has been arrested in connection with the disappearance and murder of Annie McCarrick who disappeared while living in south Dublin in 1993. The detention of the man in his 60s is the first arrest ever made in the inquiry.
Ms McCarrick (26), a young American woman who was living in Ireland at the time, went missing on March 26th, 1993.
The man is being detained under the provisions of Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act 1984 at a Garda station in Dublin. He can be questioned for up to 24 hours.
Gardaí have also sealed off a property in Clondalkin, west Dublin, and plan to search the house and garden through the day.
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“The current residents of this home are not connected in anyway with Annie McCarrick or her disappearance,” the Garda said in a statement. “Elements of that house and garden will be searched and subject of both technical and forensic examinations.”
They added the arrested man was being detained under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act 1984 at a Dublin Garda station, which allows detectives up to 24 hours to question him, at which time he must be released or charged.
A temporary restricted airspace (TRA) has been put in place by the Irish Aviation Authority in respect of the search area.
The significant moves in the inquiry follow intensive work in recent years to solve the killing, and find Ms McCarrick’s remains, after the case was upgraded from the missing persons inquiry to a murder investigation.
The arrest and search operation is being led by an investigation team from the Dublin Metropolitan Region and the serious crime unit based at Irishtown Garda station under the direction of a senior investigating officer.
The upgrading of Ms McCarrick’s disappearance to murder has led to a number of changes in the investigation.
Ms McCarrick was born in 1967 and grew up in Long Island, New York. She was an only child who came to Ireland in the late 1980s and studied at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth.
At the time of her disappearance she had fallen in love with Ireland and wanted to settle in the country despite her parents’ wishes that she return to live in the United States.
In March 1993 she was living in rented accommodation at St Cathryn’s Court in Sandymount, Dublin, with two friends, when she vanished.
An alleged sighting of her at Johnnie Fox’s pub in Glencullen, Co Dublin, has now been discounted as has a CCTV photograph of her in the Sandymount branch of the AIB that was timed to 11 days before her disappearance.
On Sunday, March 28th, 1993, friends of Ms McCarrick became concerned for her welfare. She was not at home the previous day when they called for dinner as invited, and she had not turned up for work on either of those days.
Groceries that had been purchased by Ms McCarrick on the morning of Friday, March 26th, 1993, in Quinnsworth on Sandymount Road had been left unpacked in shopping bags. A receipt in the shopping bags confirmed the date and time of purchase as: 26/03/1993 at 11.02am. This is the last confirmed evidence of what she did when she was alive.
On March 26th, 1993, Ms McCarrick spoke to her flatmates before they travelled home for the weekend, leaving her alone at the property. She was due to meet friends at her apartment the following day and was also preparing for the arrival of her mother, Nancy, in Ireland three days later, March 30th.
However, on Saturday when friends of Ms McCarrick went to her apartment for dinner she was not there, causing concern.
Although extensive searching was carried out and public appeals made in the days that followed her disappearance, much of that activity was based on questionable sightings of Ms McCarrick going to Glencullen.
Two years ago the inquiry was upgraded to a murder investigation and in recent years gardaí have focused their inquiries on two men who were known to Ms McCarrick at the time, one of whom is still living in Ireland. The other man, who is abroad, has recently been interviewed by gardaí, though he was not arrested.
