The fact a man being questioned about the murder of Josephine “Jo Jo” Dullard was released without charge on Tuesday was anticipated. His arrest was mainly designed to test him under pressure, with limited expectation of a charge, but his release still comes as a big blow to the detectives working on the case.
Ms Dullard (21), from Callan, Co Kilkenny, vanished in Moone, Co Kildare, on the night of November 9th, 1995. She was hitching from Dublin to Callan at the time. Gardaí suspect she was offered a lift by a man who then killed her, perhaps in a sexually motivated attack.
Her remains were never found and for 25 years her death was treated as a missing person inquiry. It was finally upgraded to a murder investigation in 2020. Since then gardaí have had more resources, and greater powers, to conduct a larger and deeper inquiry.
On Monday they arrested the 55-year-old suspect in the Wicklow-Kildare border region, where two houses were searched. Meanwhile, lands at Grangecon, Co Wicklow, have been searched by Garda teams looking for evidence Ms Dullard was there, or that her remains are buried there.
While the search of the lands at Grangecon continue, the suspect was released without charge on Tuesday.
The arrest of the suspect, who is linked to a prominent local family and who denies any involvement, was the first time anyone had ever been detained for questioning about Ms Dullard’s murder. Pat Marry, a former Garda detective inspector, says the fact the developments of the past 48 hours resulted in the suspect being released without charge is a blow.
Marry was involved in solving many murders where killers were brought to justice up to 10 years after their crimes. However, he is concerned at the prospect of securing a conviction in the Dullard case. Although it is “by no means impossible”, even after 29 years, the fact the chief suspect was arrested for the first time and released without charge offers insight into the status of the investigation.
The arrest categorically confirmed to the suspect he was the key person of interest for the Garda. And that same man can now only be rearrested if new evidence comes to light. But most worrying for Marry is that it is now clear – after a four-year murder inquiry following a 25-year missing people investigation – there is not sufficient evidence on which to base criminal charges.
“The guards can make an arrest when they make someone a suspect and that happens when they have reasonable cause to suspect, or they reasonably believe, a person was involved in the crime,” Marry explains. “To come to that decision, they must have a rationale. And that has to be backed up by some sort of circumstantial evidence or an indication the person was involved.”
This could include sightings placing a person in or around a place of significance at a key time related to the crime as well as, for example, a witness claiming the suspect confessed to them or otherwise implied they had been involved in the crime.
Marry says criteria for arresting a person on suspicion of a crime, even murder, are so broad that the arrest process was not proof in itself gardaí had a lot of evidence incriminating the suspect. However, at times suspects are detained based on apparently incriminating evidence married with a view taken by gardaí that the arrest process “might spook the suspect and they might talk”.
“I am surprised they haven’t said they’re going to send a file to the DPP,” he says of a statement issued by Garda Headquarters on Tuesday night. It stated the investigation, and searches at lands in Grangecon, Co Wicklow, would continue, but there was no reference to preparing a file for the DPP, the office that must ultimately decide if there is enough grounds to charge a suspect.
As to whether the release of the suspect without charge is a setback that could demoralise the Garda investigation team, Marry says: “They will be down. They would have been hoping [the suspect] might say something.”
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