John Crerar, a 51-year-old former army sergeant, has been charged with the murder of Phyllis Murphy, 20 years ago. Mr Crerar, with an address at Woodside Park, Kildare town, was jeered by onlookers as he emerged from Naas District Court today. He pleaded not guilty and was remanded in custody. He is due in court again tomorrow at Newbridge.
Phyllis Murphy disappeared from Newbridge just before Christmas 1979. Her body was found about a month later in the Wicklow mountains. The second youngest of a family of seven girls and three boys, Phyllis went into Newbridge on Saturday, December 22nd, to buy Christmas presents for her family. She also got what Gardaí described at the time as "an Afro-style hair-do". After visiting friends, she walked 50 yards to the bus stop opposite the Keadeen Hotel with the intention of visiting her family home in Kildare town. It was then about 6.30pm, and that was the last time she was seen alive.
In the searches that followed, some of her belongings were found on the Curragh, including her woollen mittens, one of which still contained her 60p bus fare. Further searches located her bag of Christmas presents, which had been thrown over the wall of an estate at Brannockstown, about eight miles from the Curragh. Then, on 18 January, 28 days after she disappeared, her naked body was found in a pine wood in the Wicklow Gap, about 30 miles from where she disappeared. She had been raped and strangled.
During the original investigation blood samples were taken from about 50 suspects to see if the blood group matched samples taken from the body. In the 20 years since then, DNA testing has been developed, and Gardaí at the Technical Bureau at Garda HQ recently came up with the idea of subjecting the samples to DNA analysis.
