Director John Downes and reporter Mick Peelo are the duo behind Beyond the Vanishing Triangle, a new two-part true-crime series on RTÉ One that looks at some of the most notorious cases of women who disappeared within a so-called 'Vanishing Triangle' throughout the 1990's. It examines how these cases were investigated and features interviews with their family members.
Below, they revisit the story of Annie McCarrick, whose disappearance in 1993 features in the first episode of Beyond the Vanishing Triangle.
The house that Nancy McCarrick lives in is a house full of memories.
Her only daughter Annie's favourite Irish literature books line the bookshelves of her Long Island home; photos of her from happier times adorn the fridge and the bedroom wall; sometimes when it is cold Nancy wraps herself in one of Annie's old Aran sweaters.
Annie was "funny, reliable and conscientious", Nancy tells us during filming for our new two-part documentary series, MISSING:Beyond the Vanishing Triangle. "She wasn't fearful. She couldn’t find fault with Ireland."
Annie was 26 when she vanished without a trace from her apartment in Sandymount, Dublin. She was reported to have boarded a bus towards Enniskerry village later that day.
Gardai subsequently focused their search on the nearby Johnny Fox's pub after another reported sighting of her there later that day.
But those closest to her believe it is unlikely she ever made it to Johnnie Fox's. Her childhood best friend, Linda Ringhouse, says she was " very chatty, she really liked to have conversations and meet people."
"I don’t think she was at Johnnie Fox’s that night... between her beauty and just how kind she was… there would have definitely been more than just a doorman remembering her."
Retired detective Tom Rock, who ran the Garda incident room in the aftermath of Annie’s disappearance, believes the sighting of Annie at the pub was made in good faith. Despite extensive efforts by Gardaí, attempts to corroborate the sighting came to nothing.
on the 30th anniversary of her disappearance (Pic: Colin Keegan)
"We couldn’t find any trace of Annie McCarrick in Johnnie Fox’s other than the sighting by the doorman on the way in. We couldn’t prove or disprove that she was there," he says.
Annie’s loved ones have long wondered why her case was treated as a missing rather than a murder case. Without a body or a crime scene, officers say it can be difficult to prove that a murder has even been committed.
During our filming, Nancy wrote to Garda Commissioner Drew Harris to request that he consider finally upgrading the case to a full murder inquiry.
Now she is hopeful that someone, somewhere will come forward with new information. Two days before the thirtieth anniversary of Annie’s disappearance, Gardaí announced that the case is being treated as a full murder investigation.
Nancy may have grounds for renewed optimism.
In the early 1990's two other women went missing without a trace. Patricia McGauley vanished in September 1991. In July of the following year, Mary Cummins also disappeared.
At the time, their disappearances attracted few headlines.
But Detective John Cribben never forgot their story.
He got to know their families, including Mary’s daughter Samantha, who was just four years old at the time her mother disappeared.
During his initial investigation, he became convinced that the same man may have been involved in both disappearances. But his attempts to find their killer at first led nowhere.
"It's hard to go back to somebody with no news. But it doesn’t mean that the cases are shut because they are not. And they are never shut in the hearts and the minds of the Gardaí involved in them because we take a personal stake in the investigations," he says.
Two years passed as he continued to investigate. Then a breakthrough. A young woman came forward with potentially crucial new information. It was enough for the cases of both women to be upgraded to full murder investigations.
"Once it became a full on what we believed to be a double murder investigation that was a gamechanger," Cribben says. "The investigation moved from my point of view a one man band investigation to now a full orchestra of gardai. The investigation went right back and started off again. The investigation then comes to its own conclusion not my conclusion."
By the end of the investigation, Gardaí had one suspect: Michael Bambrick.
He was Patricia McGauley’s partner and had been seen in the company of Mary Cummins on the night she disappeared.
Bambrick received 18 years for the manslaughter of Mary Cummins and 15 years for the killing of Patricia McGauley.
For Samantha, sitting in her Dublin home, knowing the identity of the man who killed her beloved mother means everything.
"My heart definitely goes out to the families that are wondering every day is somebody going to come through the hall door, are we going to get a phone call are we going to actually be able to put closure in our lives and know they’re not coming home," she says. "Even though my Mam was found, the way she was found, I have her remains. I got that closure and so many families like that don’t get that closure."
Nancy McCarrick nods silently. Her hope now is not for justice or retribution. But answers.
"My fondest wish would just be to find out what happened to her. To be able to have a grave to visit. It would be very nice to be able to do that."
Episode 1 of MISSING: Beyond the Vanishing Triangle airs on Monday 8th May at 9.35 pm on RTÉ One and on the RTE Player.
IF YOU HAVE any information about a missing person please contact the Garda Confidential line on 1800 666 111 or the National Missing Persons Helpline - 1800 442552 or at www.missingpersons.ie
