30 JUL 2023 · In this episode, Radio Espial looks at the unsolved cold case of Antoinette Smith from 1987. I'm delighted to say that I was joined by Ciaran McConnell from Irish Cold Cases and the website Ireland's Vanishing Triangle to review this case. CASE SUMMARY Antoinette Smith and her friend Marie attended a David Bowie concert at Slane Castle in County Meath, Ireland on Saturday, July 11th, 1987. The pair returned by bus to Dublin City centre arriving at Parnell Square around 11pm that night. They decided to finish their long day out after the concern at the La Mirage Discotheque on Parnell Street a short distance away. It was there that they met two men they knew. Having remained in the two men’s company for the rest of the night, they all left the nightclub shortly after 2am. Antoinette’s friend parted company with the group, deciding to head home while Antoinette stayed on speaking to the two men until all three walked the short distance to a taxi rank on O’Connell Street. The men got a taxi to the Ballymun area and Antoinette instead chose to walk down towards O’Connell Bridge. She was subsequently reported missing by her husband when she did not return to his home to collect her two young children the following day. Her remains were discovered and positively identified nine months later at Glendoo Mountain on the Dublin/Wicklow mountain border. https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/antoinettesmith https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/truecrime https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/irelandmurdercase

23 JUL 2023 · Deirdre Jacob is an Irish woman who disappeared very near her parent’s home just outside Newbridge town, County Kildare on the 28th July 1998 at the age of 18. In August 2018 the Garda Síochána (Irish police) announced that her disappearance was being treated as a murder case. CASE SUMMARY Deirdre Jacob was born on October 14th, 1979 to Michael and Bernadette Jacob and she spent her childhood growing up in a bungalow just outside Newbridge, County Kildare in an area called Roseberry. During the 1980s, it was a quiet place that had yet to see the sprawling housing developments that would soon come. When she completed school, Deirdre had developed a passion for writing, playing the piano, and she quickly decided she want to teach. She left Ireland in 1997 and began studying to be a primary level teacher at St. Mary’s College in Twickenham, London to qualify. By May 1998, her first year of study was completed and she returned back to her parent’s home in Newbridge, Ireland. During her time in college, she has recently begun a romantic relationship (April) with a classmate, Charlie. Deirdre wants him to visit Ireland that summer and she is eager to bring him over and meet her parents and show him the sites of Ireland in August. Her family are looking forward to that visit. Deirdre was also looking forward to seeing old schoolfriends on her summer trip back home and her mother Bernadette had assisted her in getting a part-time job in the HSE (Health Service Executive) where she worked. Her dad Michael worked as an official at Teagasc (an Agri-advisory body) locally. Deirdre had a younger sister (Ciara) who was still at secondary school level. Always planning ahead, on July 28th, Deirdre left her home and walked into Newbridge town to organise a bank draft to send to her flatmate in London for the accommodation she would return to when the study year started again as summer gave way to autumn. She also wanted to post some letters she had written the previous evening (July 27th) to send to friends. She was very close to her grandmother who ran a sweetshop in Newbridge and it was an opportunity to spend time with her that day. Deirdre made the walking trip to Newbridge town, deposited money and finally sorted the bank draft, and along with some letters she posted, she popped in twice to her grandmother’s shop that early afternoon. She then started the 25 minute walk back home around 2.35-3 pm. There’s reason to believe Deirdre almost got home (witness accounts from locals), possibly as far as the entry to her parent’s road, driveway and home, but after that – Deirdre Jacob vanished into thin air. This is the timeline and the study of her disappearance as it unfolded, hour by hour, day by day, month by month, and a missing person case that would ultimately be upgraded to suspected murder across 25 years. PLEASE NOTE - This podcast is the audio from the full Radio Espial You Tube documentary. It is probably best viewed at https://www.radioespial.com. https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/deirdrejacob https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/truecrime https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/ireland https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/missing

21 JUN 2023 · Josephine "Jo Jo" Dullard, 21, of Callan, County Kilkenny, was living in Harold's Cross, County Dublin when she went missing on 9th November 1995. She had recently finished a beauty therapy course after finding it very difficult to juggle work and college. On the day she disappeared, she was planning on moving from Dublin back home to Callan for good. She had missed her last bus to Callan and had to take another bus to Naas, County Kildare instead. She was last known to be in the Moone area of County Kildare while hitchhiking home to Kilkenny. She had been driven from the Naas area to Kilcullen, County Kildare and then on from Kilcullen to Moone. She was last seen using a payphone in Moone and through telephone records, Gardaí found out the call was made at 11:37 pm to Dullard's friend, Mary Cullinane. She ended the call as she was about to enter another car. There was also an unconfirmed sighting of her walking along the road in Castledermot, County Kildare. The driver of the car or other occupants have never been identified.

5 JUN 2023 · Tina Satchwell is an Irish woman who went missing under suspicious circumstances in 2017, in County Cork, Republic of Ireland. Tina Satchwell is from St Bernard's Place in Fermoy, Cork. She lived with her husband for almost 28 years, Richard Satchwell, and their two dogs on Grattan Street in the seaside town of Youghal. The couple met when Tina was on a visit to the UK in 1989. Richard moved to Ireland within ten weeks of the pair meeting. Tina disappeared from her home on Monday 20th March 2017. She was last seen in public at a car boot sale with her husband in the town of Carrigtwohill the previous day (Sunday) 19th March. Richard was the last person to see her around 10 am on the Monday morning. He stated that Tina asked him to go to an Aldi store in Dungarvan to buy fish and dog food, and when he return to their home on Grattan Street in Youghal two hours later, she was gone. He officially reported her missing on Friday 24th March four days after he had last seen her. Tina was aged 45 at the time of her disappearance and the couple had been married for 26 years. In subsequent interviews with police and the media, Richard, originally from the UK and having lived in Ireland for nearly 35 years, stated that his wife had been depressed and was troubled by some family disputes. His belief was that she had chosen to leave "to get her head straight" and go to family or friends in the UK.

7 MAY 2023 · Philip Cairns, a 13-year-old schoolboy, disappeared on the afternoon of the 23rd October 1986 while walking back to local secondary-level school, Coláiste Éanna in Rathfarnham, Dublin, after his lunch break. He never returned to school and has never been found after more than 36 years A large-scale investigation was carried out but no physical trace of Philip has ever been found. His disappearance has long been treated as a high-profile child murder case, the only similar incident in Ireland being the murder of young Robert Holohan (11 years) in January 2005 and Philip’s case remains one of the most high-profile disappearances in recent Irish history. Across almost 37 years, Philip's family have issued numerous appeals for information. A reconstruction took place in 2007 and was later televised on Irish TV network, RTÉ One, while a reward of €10,000 has also been offered. The book, When Heaven Waits by Emma McMenamy, published in 2007, featured an interview with Philip's mother, Alice. Nobody has ever been arrested and the case remains open. Radio Espial's Mick Rooney takes a close examination of the case.

10 APR 2023 · Kris Kremers and Lisanne Froon were Dutch students who disappeared on 1st April 2014, while hiking the El Pianista trail in Panama. After an extensive search, portions of their bodies were found a few months later. Their cause of death could not be determined definitively, but Dutch authorities working with forensic and search-rescue investigators initially thought it likely the students had accidentally fallen from a cliff or river bridge after becoming lost. However, foul play could not be entirely ruled out, and is considered by some much more likely due to other remains being found. The circumstances and aftermath of their disappearance have resulted in much speculation about their final days.

10 MAR 2023 · Jean Tighe, a native of Cavan, Ireland goes missing from a hostel she is staying at in Parede, Portugal (located just outside the city of Lisbon) on July 13th, 2020. She is spotted by a hostel worker carrying her handbag, leaving to meet up with a Brazilian male friend. Jean has spent much of life travelling abroad as a free-spirit and has visited places all over Europe, India, Australia and South Africa. She can often be away from Ireland and her family for many months at a time but always makes sure she is back in Ireland from her travels during the Christmas period. Jean is described by her family and friends as very independent, outgoing, always wanting to meet people and make new friends, but generally travelled more often alone on her trips. She was known to be very streetwise and loved her bohemian lifestyle as a non-drinker and vegan. At 38 years of age (July 2020) she had experienced her share of personal ups and downs and found the period of lockdowns in Ireland at the beginning of the pandemic to be stressful and restrictive. Ultimately, she travelled to Portugal for several months, staying in various hostels during the first half of 2020 until her disappearance in July that year in Parede.

18 FEB 2023 · Nicola Bulley, 45, a mortgage advisor, was last seen on Friday morning at around 9.20am while walking her dog alongside the River Wyre in St Michael’s on Wyre, Lancashire, UK. She had just dropped off two her daughters, aged six and nine, at the local school in the village. Ms Bulley’s phone was found, apparently still engaged on a work call, on a park bench nearby, along with the harness and lead for her dog, Willow, a springer spaniel. Journalist Mick Rooney examines the full case timeline for Radio Espial. Please note: this is an edited video cast and the complete episode can be found here - https://www.youtube.com/@MickRooney/videos #nicolabulley #missing

18 NOV 2022 · Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17/MAS17) was a scheduled passenger flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur that was shot down by Russian forces on 17 July 2014, while flying over eastern Ukraine. All 283 passengers and 15 crew were killed. Contact with the aircraft, a Boeing 777-200ER, was lost when it was about 50 km (31 miles) from the Ukraine–Russia border, and wreckage from the aircraft fell near Hrabove in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, 40 km (25 miles) from the border. The shoot-down occurred during the war in Donbas over territory controlled by Russian separatist forces. The responsibility for investigation was delegated to the Dutch Safety Board (DSB) and the Dutch-led joint investigation team (JIT), who in 2016 reported that the airliner had been downed by a Buk surface-to-air missile launched from pro-Russian separatist-controlled territory in Ukraine. The JIT found that the Buk that was used originated from the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade of the Russian Federation and had been transported from Russia on the day of the crash, fired from a field in a rebel-controlled area and the launch system returned to Russia afterwards. The findings by the DSB and JIT were consistent with the earlier claims by American and German intelligence sources and claims by the Ukrainian government. On the basis of the JIT's conclusions, the governments of the Netherlands and Australia held Russia responsible for the deployment of the Buk installation and began pursuing legal remedies in May 2018. The Russian government denied involvement in the shooting down of the airplane, and its account of how the aircraft was shot down has varied over time. Coverage in Russian media has also differed from that in other countries. In November 2022, following a trial in absentia, two Russians and a Ukrainian separatist were found guilty of murdering all 298 people onboard flight MH17 by shooting it down. The Dutch court also ruled that Russia was in control of the separatist forces fighting in eastern Ukraine at the time.

24 OCT 2022 · The latest episode of Radio Espial has gone live. Likes, shares and subscribes are always appreciated on Youtube. Annie Bridget McCarrick (born March 27th, 1966), an American woman from Long Island, New York, went missing under suspicious circumstances in 1993 while she was residing in Ireland. McCarrick was born on Long Island, New York and she grew up and lived in Bayport until her move to Ireland in January 1987, aged 19, to study at St Patrick’s College for Teacher Training in Drumcondra. She later switched colleges and instead decided to study Irish Literature at Maynooth University for three years. For two years she was in a relationship with Dermot Ryan, a period when Annie was renting and sharing a small cottage with a female friend in Ballyboden, Dublin. In 1990, she returned to New York and after a four-month period, the relationship with Ryan petered out. He returned to Ireland and later decided to move to Italy. Annie instead remained in New York and spent two years in the US studying for a master’s degree. Previously, she had also been in a short relationship with Philip Brady, brother of her long-time friend Hilary Brady. She knew the Brady family in Clondalkin back since her arrival in 1987-88 and stayed with them for a period of time. But she still yearned for a new fresh start in Ireland in 1993. Her maternal and paternal families all had strong roots in Ireland (Great-Grandparents). During her years in Ireland, she still regularly commuted back to New York for short periods and family visits. Her parents also visited Ireland two or three times a year. After more than a two-year hiatus, Annie returned to Ireland on the 6th of January 1993 and insisted to her father that it would be a permanent move for good. This caused some strain between the pair; her father believing that she should cast aside this fanciful love affair and adventure with Ireland and return to live and work in New York. Almost all the family, friends, teachers, and people who knew Annie, saw her as an outgoing and well-adjusted person – trusting of others, if a little too idealistic at times. Annie McCarrick disappeared on Friday, March 26th, 1993, one day short of her 27th birthday. Her mother Nancy had already planned to visit her late the following week, arriving Friday, April 3rd, having just missed her daughter’s birthday a week before.