Between Netflix's Tinder Swindler and Inventing Anna to Hulu’s The Dropout, the scammer narrative has had a major renaissance. But what if I told you there was a scammer story that you've likely never heard of, a story about a protagonist who accumulated over a hundred aliases, conned governments out of hundreds of thousands of euros and left a literal and emotional trail of destruction everywhere she went. A story that will make most others look, dare I say tame.
For two years, the award-winning team at RTE Documentary on One have been working on Finding Samantha; a seven-part podcast series that will span three continents and involve guest appearances from the FBI and American homeland security. It’s produced by Doc On One’s Nicoline Greer and Tim Desmond and Australian journalist Sharon Davis. Unlike most scammer stories, this tale begins right here in Ireland. What starts as the nation's strangest missing person case soon takes a dark and unsettling turn. It will leave you wondering who is the real victim of this crime and if anyone or anything is what it appears.
To summarize, this podcast is somewhere between the Nobody Zone (without the murder) and Sweet Bobby (without the romance). It’s a scammer girl story with the volume turned way up.
Still not sold? Then read on as I break down episode one of Finding Samantha.
GPO Girl:
After that somewhat elusive introduction, you might want a bit more context. Let’s set the scene: In 2013, the Gardai were called to an incident on O'Connell Street in Dublin. They find a distressed girl near the general post office (GPO) acting strangely. But when asked what was wrong, she wouldn’t or couldn’t respond. The girl had no ID, no money, not even a bag. It’s as if she appeared out of thin air. The officers took her to Temple Street Children’s Hospital. And so began the hunt to find out who she was and how she got there.
"In some ways there was nothing that unusual about her. But the way that she was behaving had people worried…" - Nicoline Greer
First Impressions:
Finding Samantha gives listeners an all-access pass to this investigation. The lead officer on the case, Detective Superintendent Dave Gallagher gives us the inside scoop. As always, it’s the little things that caught this expert's eye and subsequently hooked this listener's attention. For instance, the girl was thought to be between 14-19, wore braces, and insisted on covering her face with her hair. She actively tried to conceal her identity from Superintendent Gallagher and his colleagues. For some, that might raise suspicions, but he took a more nuanced approach. "That could also be a sign of somebody very traumatized as somebody the victim of a very, very serious incident." In other words, her refusal to communicate might not be a choice, it might be a survival tactic.
"That could also be a sign of somebody very traumatized as somebody the victim of a very, very serious incident." - Detective superintendent Dave Gallagher
Fly On The Wall:
Let’s be honest, sometimes it’s hard to absorb everything the professionals tell us. Enter Sue Hyland. Sue was in Temple Street Hospital with her nephew the day the GPO girl was found. Throughout the episode, Sue corroborates what Superintendent Gallagher tells us and offers a few undisclosed details that only a shrewd Irishwoman with impeccable hearing could obtain. In a world of fake news and sometimes less-than-flattering portrayals of law enforcement, it’s nice to have some civilian backup.
"I remember just automatically thinking, Oh, god, me heart is breaking, even looking at her like, and I only saw a glimpse of her. I can still remember how frail she looked." - Sue Hyland
Red Flags:
Who doesn’t love a red flag? The Tinder Date that talks exclusively about his mother or the boss who thinks experience is a form of compensation. This podcast is nearly exclusively red flags, those little details or comments that set your mind racing and stomach flipping. In episode one, Sue relays that she overheard a guard ask the GPO girl if she smokes. "I remember the male guard walking out going, she's, very young to be smoking, isn't she?" But things really escalated when she was encouraged to draw some doodles. All it took was an image of a gun, a cross and an aeroplane to make this story into a national crisis.
"I was like, the poor child has been brought into this country and she's just been abandoned on O'Connell Street. Like what a place to be left." - Sue Hyland
Ireland’s Criminal Underworld:
Fearful that she was the victim of human trafficking the girl was put under constant Garda supervision. The authorities poured resources into the case. They needed to keep this young girl safe and find out who she was - fast. Soon the press got wind of the story, and every airwave and television broadcast was talking about the sex trafficking of minors into Ireland. Could the girl at the centre of this episode be one of those children? Was there someone else controlling her? Feel free to scrap the rest of this article and hit play.
"We don't know if that young girl was trafficked. But there are indications that she may have been. it is really highlighting the fact that kids are being raped and exploiters in the sex trade for organized crime in Ireland." - Denise Charlton
Operation Shepherd:
Despite all the fanfare, the GPO girl remained silent. The case wasn’t cold, it was frozen solid. So a formal investigation was launched called Operation Shepherd. The Guards set up an incident room staffed by 15 detectives and began to tear the city apart in search of leads. They trawled through CCTV tapes, interviewed pedestrians, checked accommodation providers, child protection units, and plane manifests - anything that would help identify the young girl. They even asked Europol for assistance, but nothing. There were no hits from her fingerprints or evidence of sexual assault on her clothes. She was a ghost.
"It was needle in a haystack stuff really." - Detective superintendent Dave Gallagher
The Photograph:
If you’re beginning to wonder if this investigation ever heats up, I don’t blame you. After following over 80 lines of enquiry, the Gardai were reaching desperation. So, they looked to the High Court for assistance. They needed permission to publicly release a grainy photo of the girl, taken without her consent. Superintendent Gallagher had never made such an application, but he needed to identify the girl and figure out if a criminal offense had occurred. The court, much to the girl's discomfort, agreed.
"Her privacy is invaded there then and if a person is a victim the photograph is out there forever." - Detective superintendent Dave Gallagher
Everything is not what it seems:
A press conference was held to release the image; then came the calls. Tips poured in from across the globe: Cyprus, Canada, Moldova, but they all came to nothing. That is until the Australian clocks caught up with Irish time, suddenly everything about this case shifted. That’s why the Doc On One team connected with Australian reporter Sharon Davis, but I’ve already told you too much…. Besides, the identifying call wouldn’t come from Australia but from much closer to home….
"The true identity of this girl was going to be even stranger than anyone had initially thought ...." - Nicoline Greer.
If you want to learn more about this elusive character and what happened to her next, grab the nearest electronic device and get streaming.
