The conviction of John Crerar for the murder 23 years ago of Phyllis Murphy may indirectly help to solve other cases, the detective who made the breakthrough in the case said yesterday. Alison Healy reports.
Ms Murphy's death was one of a catalogue of unsolved cases involving women who went missing or were killed in the Leinster region over the past two decades.
Det Insp Brendan McArdle said these cases had never been closed and he hoped the conviction would move some members of the public to come forward with information about them.
Somebody must know something about some of these cases and the media focus on this case might jolt them into finally coming forward, he said.
"A file is never closed. It may grow cold but it is never closed."
The lack of a body in many of these cases was "a major difficulty", Det Insp McArdle said, as the amount of information which could be gleaned from a body was "amazing". With such rapid developments in DNA research, these breakthroughs would continue.
He made the breakthrough in the case when he began to take some sample exhibits to a British laboratory for DNA examination in 1998. This DNA technology was not available when Ms Murphy's body was found 18 years earlier.
In spring 1999, John Crerar's DNA had been identified in the samples taken from Ms Murphy's body. Officers working on Operation Trace - an investigation into several missing women cases - then became involved in the investigation.
On RTÉ yesterday, retired Chief Supt John Courtney, who worked on the case, said he believed this conviction provided "a great opening" for prosecutions in similar cases where blood samples were taken from suspects.
Gardaí said yesterday they could not comment on whether Crerar would be questioned about the disappearance of other women in the Leinster region.
"These cases are still open and the investigations are still continuing," a Garda spokesman said yesterday.
Det Insp McArdle said the young women missing and presumed dead in recent years were killed simply because they were young women. If a murderer could be caught after almost 23 years, then criminals could never rest easy, he said.
Phyllis Murphy's death was the first in a catalogue of unsolved cases in the Leinster area, spanning from 1979 to 1998. That disturbing catalogue now starts with the disappearance of Patricia Furlong (21) from Dundrum, Dublin in July, 1982. Her body was found in the Dublin mountains near Glencullen. Nine years later, Vincent Connell, a former disc jockey, was convicted of her murder. He always protested his innocence and the conviction was quashed by the Court of Criminal Appeal in 1995. He died of a heart attack in England three years later.
In July, 1987, Antoinette Smith (27) disappeared after attending a David Bowie concert in Slane, Co Meath. The mother of two had returned to Dublin after the concert and went to a pub and disco with a friend. Her raped and strangled body was found in a shallow grave in the Dublin mountains in April, 1988.
Not far from this spot, another body was found by a man cutting turf, in June, 1992. It was the remains of Patricia Doherty (30) a mother of two from Tallaght who had disappeared on December 23rd, 1991. She too was strangled.
Fourteen months after Patricia Doherty disappeared, American student Annie McCarrick (26) was also to disappear. She left her Sandymount flat on March 3rd, 1993 for a trip to Glencullen. Ms McCarrick's body has never been found.
In July of the same year, Eva Brennan (40) disappeared after visiting her parents' home on Rathgar Road in Dublin. Her body has never been found.
Marie Kilmartin (36) was the next woman to disappear when she went missing from her Portlaoise home on December 16th, the same year.
Her body was found in a bog off the Mountmellick-Portarlington road, six months later. She had been strangled and a concrete slab had been placed on top of her.
One of the most high-profile disappearances was in November, 1995 when Josephine (Jo Jo) Dullard (20) disappeared in Co Kildare while making her way home from Dublin to Kilkenny. Despite widespread publicity and reconstructions of her disappearance, the case was never solved.
The following August, Fiona Pender (25) disappeared from the home she shared with her boyfriend, outside Tullamore, Co Offaly. She was seven months pregnant at the time, fuelling family concerns that she had not willingly disappeared.
In 1998, two young women disappeared in the space of one week. On February 8th, Fiona Sinnott (19) went missing after leaving a pub near her home at Our Lady's Island in Wexford.
Four days later, Ciara Breen (18) disappeared from her home in Dundalk, Co Louth. She took no possessions and had been in the middle of having complex orthodontic work on her front teeth.
Student teacher Deirdre Jacob (19) disappeared from near her home in Newbridge, Co Kildare in July of the same year.
With growing fears of a serial killer in the Leinster region, the Garda Commissioner, Mr Pat Byrne, set up Operation Trace that September.