Every summer, while driving through rural Connemara, my mother would slow down the car and tell us the story of what happened to Mary Duffy. How in the summer of 1976, two Englishmen came over to Ireland and decided to abduct, rape and murder women.
It may have occurred nearly 50 years ago, but the brutality shown by John Shaw and Geoffrey Evans, Ireland's first serial killers, as they took the lives of Mary and another young woman, Elizabeth Plunkett, is a horror story from her childhood that was impossible to erase.
Justice was allegedly served when both men were sentenced to life in prison, but a parole application from Shaw just two years ago would rewrite the history of Elizabeth's case.
New revelations emerged that turned the Plunkett family upside down and forced them to restart their fight for justice.
That fight brought them to the RTÉ Documentary On One team, who created a seven-part podcast - Stolen Sister - dedicated to helping this family find closure and justice for Elizabeth.
As this is a live investigation entering its fourth episode, I’d ask all readers and listeners to remember that if anyone has any information on John Shaw and Geoffrey Evans, the Plunkett family have asked that you contact the podcast makers through documentaries@rte.ie.
Because, as I learned from a very young age, this is a case that is impossible to forget… I’d also warn you that the following article won’t make much sense unless you catch up on the first three episodes immediately.
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As the town of Castlebar was going into shock following the disappearance of Mary, she was being held just 80 kilometres away by her captors.
Gardaí instantly could see the link between the disappearance of Mary and that of Elizabeth, despite both women being taken from opposite ends of the country.
However, Shaw and Evans took a few forensic countermeasures before they abducted Mary.
They stole a new car, repainted it and changed the license plate, but what they didn’t account for was the inner workings of rural Ireland, where you can’t throw a stone without someone noticing.
Soon reports of two strange Englishmen in the West of Ireland came flooding in, many of which are included in this podcast…
They were spotted in a pub on 24 September, two days after taking Mary and later murdering her.
On that same day, Garda Dennis O’Shea handled a break-in at a boathouse by Lough Inagh in Connemara, about an hour from where Mary was last seen alive.
Then the next day, a man in the seaside village of Roundstone in Connemara witnessed two men throwing things into the river…
In last week’s episode, we mentioned that Shaw and Evans were spotted at Joe Keane’s petrol station in Maam Cross in Connemara, after news of Mary’s disappearance broke, Joe decided to report his sighting to the guards.
Joe’s information fitted with reports from witnesses in Castlebar - the gardaí now knew not only who they were looking for, but the exact car they were driving, a black Ford Cortina.
On Sunday, 26 September, Shaw and Evans drove to Galway, it had been four days since they abducted Mary.
Like every guard around the country, Garda Jim Boland and Garda PJ Corcoran were on high alert as they drove around Galway City that night.
While passing a local disco in the Ocean Wave Hotel in Salthill, they spotted something… two men approaching the very same car they had been searching for.
I noticed one of the things that they threw into the sea in particular, as it opened up with the wind as it was falling into the sea. It was blue in colour and looked like a sleeping bag
- Witness
Salthill showdown
Garda Boland and Garda Corcoran spoke to the podcast about the faithful night they reprimanded the two most wanted men in Ireland at the time.
Once they spotted the car, they instantly called for backup, but as they did, the killers started up their car, so Garda Boland put on his headlights and made a plan with his colleagues to catch the men.
Surprisingly, the pair didn’t resist; they did, however, give fake names, and the driver claimed to have conveniently forgotten his licence.
Not missing a beat, Garda Boland said he was arresting them for driving without a licence and hauled them back to Salthill Garda station.
The men were transferred to the main garda station at Eglinton Street in Galway city and separated.
Gardaí were brought in to assist with the case, including Christy Reilly, who spoke exclusively to the team.
He described Shaw as an extraordinary personality with a vicious appearance, while Evans he said, was different, more relaxed in demeanour.
It had been five days since Mary went missing, and everyone hoped she was still alive. The authorities found a receipt for a caravan in Connemara, where the men had been living, and Garda Boland went straight to the site.
He expected to find Mary, but instead, he came up empty-handed.
Meanwhile, back at the station, Shaw and Evans feigned innocence, saying as little as possible.
The day after their arrest, Shaw hatched a plan - he asked to go to the bathroom, and then once he had the chance, he started to run…
To learn more about this mini-prison break, hit play above.
We were all called in in the middle of the night to investigate this case and I thought that Mr Shaw was an extraordinary type of personality. He did look, if I may say vicious. But Geoffrey Evans was a different personality, he was more relaxed…
- Garda Christy Reilly
Confessions
Once Evans and Shaw were apprehended, gardaí immediately began questioning them.
They hoped Mary was still alive, so tried desperately to find out where the men had taken her, but Shaw and Evans refused to cooperate, denying any involvement in her disappearance.
That is until the gardaí presented Evans with his missing boots, the piece of cardboard they had found with his former alias Geoffrey Murphy written on it and statements from witnesses in Brittas Bay.
If this isn’t ringing any bells, you might need to re-listen to episode three.
After that, Evans cracked wide open.
He admitted to the abduction, rape and of Elizabeth but specified that Shaw had murdered her.
Evans initially denied knowing anything about Mary’s disappearance; he claimed he could never do what he did in Brittas Bay again.
Shaw took a slightly different approach to the interrogation process and started to roar, jump on chairs and violently push a table into Garda JP Nolan, who had been questioning him.
He then proceeded to bang a chair off a glass cabinet and was put sitting down again. That is until he threw himself on the floor and began to scream.
While Shaw went to get some rest, Detective Gerry O’Carroll couldn’t stop thinking about Mary alone and potentially fighting for her life.
So, the detective took the unorthodox step and woke Shaw at about 2.30am to begin questioning once more.
This decision would later give Shaw grounds for a legal appeal, but at the time, all the authorities cared about was finding Mary.
Halfway through this round of questioning, Shaw broke down. He confessed to both killings.
Evans also agreed to tell the full truth about both women, which included admitting that Mary was not alive but dead in Lough Inagh.
While the information given by both men about the crimes was very similar, they differed on one detail - who did the actual killing of Elizabeth and Mary, with both deflecting responsibility onto the other.
...About all the two murders and the intended killings that him and his partner were going to engage in an orgy of killing across Ireland
- Detective Gerry O’Carroll
Scene of the crime
Once Shaw and Evans confessed, they brought the authorities to the two locations in Connemara related to Mary’s disappearance.
They directed them to Ballinahinch Wood, where they had murdered her - here gardaí found parts of Mary’s clothing and the men’s tent.
The next stop was Lough Inagh, where the killers had disposed of Mary’s body.
Shaw and Evans provided information that only the murderers could have known, like where they burned Mary’s possessions, where they threw away her rings and finally, where her body could be found.
On 28 September, the gardaí trekked across the country with Shaw and Evans to the place where Elizabeth was last seen alive.
Garda Gerry Hallihan from Wicklow was there when the murderers were brought to Brittas Bay to gather evidence, he still has his notebook from that day.
Coincidentally, Elizabeth’s body was located that same day.
Jack Harpur, now 85 years old, found Elizabeth’s body after it washed up at Duncormick in Co Wexford.
He spoke directly to the podcast team about that day nearly 50 years ago when he went out for a walk and instead found a body.
The horror and emotion of this moment and episode are amplified by the epic score compliments of Oscar-winning composer Stephen Warbeck, which was recorded by the RTÉ Concert Orchestra and conductor Gavin Maloney in RTÉ Radio Centre.
And sure I come across a body and so we notified the Gardaí
- Jack Harpur
Catch up with all episodes of Stolen Sister here
