Missing (19 page)

Detectives privately knew that the disappearances of Annie McCarrick and Jo Jo Dullard would fit the profile of random attackers. But what about the other missing women? A top-level conference
was held at which it was decided that six specific cases of missing women, all feared to have been the victims of violent abduction, should be cross-referenced to see if there were any
similarities.

In September 1998, two months after the disappearance of the Droichead Nua teenager, Commissioner Pat Byrne announced the establishment of a special Garda operation to investigate the cases of
six missing women. Called Operation Trace, it was to be under the command of Assistant Commissioner Tony Hickey from the Garda Eastern Region, from where the missing women had vanished. He had
previously directed the team that investigated the murder of the journalist Veronica Guerin and was still working on that case when he hand-picked a team of detectives. The task of the operation
was to trace, review and collate the evidence about Annie McCarrick, Jo Jo Dullard, Fiona Pender, Ciara Breen, Fiona Sinnott, and the missing Droichead Nua teenager.

Of paramount importance to the operation was the setting up of a computer system by means of which every scrap of information, every suggestion and innuendo about each case could be
cross-referenced. Detectives were hoping to find a common name of a suspect in at least two of the cases, someone who was in the area at the time of two disappearances but had seemed to be in the
clear; or perhaps a vehicle was spotted in the area of two or more of the disappearances. As the establishment of Operation Trace was announced, there was a degree of optimism among the
Gardaí that something positive was about to emerge.

Assistant Commissioner Hickey selected an experienced superintendent to oversee the day-to-day running of the Operation Trace team, which would be based in Naas, Co. Kildare. Superintendent
Jerry O’Connell had worked with Hickey on the Veronica Guerin murder investigation and on a number of other murder cases in the 1980s and 90s. The other members were Inspector Mark Kerrigan,
Detective-Sergeant Maura Walsh, Sergeant Pat Treacy, Detective-Garda Marianne Cusack, and Detective-Garda Alan Bailey. Between them the six gardaí had decades of experience in investigating
serious crime, including murder cases and missing persons cases. Mark Kerrigan was a former murder squad officer, who was based in Carlow. Maura Walsh was working with the National Bureau of
Criminal Investigation at Harcourt Square, Dublin. Pat Treacy worked with the murder squad and had investigated the disappearance of Philip Cairns and the murder of Patricia Doherty. Marianne
Cusack was a member of the National Drugs Unit and had been involved in a number of serious cases, including the prosecution of the prominent Dublin criminal ‘Dutchy’ Holland. Alan
Bailey was attached to the Bridewell Garda Station in Dublin, where he had been involved in preparing the book of evidence in nearly every recent murder case in the north Dublin area.

Jerry O’Connell, now retired, told me that every member of the Operation Trace team brought some individual expertise or knowledge to the operation.

The compilation by computer of information about specific crimes for cross-referencing purposes had never been done before in Ireland. The Gardaí wanted to choose a
program that was ‘non-judgmental’, whereby the information on each disappearance would be treated in the same way and in turn might throw up connections that otherwise might not be
found. In each of the six missing women cases there were no witnesses and no crime scene. The task of trying to establish any possible links between them would be painstaking. In choosing a
suitable computer program, the Gardaí looked at countries where such cross-referencing of cases was already in existence. Jerry O’Connell and Alan Bailey travelled to meet the English
police at the National Crime Facility at Bramshill, outside London, and learn about the Home Office Large Major Enquiry System (HOLMES). They also looked at a system used by the Canadian police,
the Violent Crime Linkage Analysis System (VICLAS). This was introduced in the mid-1980s to identify and track the movements of serial violent criminals, including rapists and suspected murderers.
Among other systems used for finding common features among unsolved crimes is the FBI’s Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (VICAP).

Crucially, certain aspects of the Canadian system deal specifically with solved and unsolved sexual assaults, and with missing persons where there was a strong possibility of foul play. After
studying the different programs available, the Gardaí decided to adapt aspects of the Canadian model to form their own Offenders, Victims and Incidents Data-base (OVID).

The OVID system allowed detectives on Operation Trace to collate information about three distinct and crucial areas of their investigation: all known sexual and violent offenders, all known
victims of attacks by such people, and information on all reported violent incidents, including attempted abductions. Every scrap of information on each of the six missing women was also compiled
and assimilated in the search for any kind of link.

Within weeks of the setting up of Operation Trace the detectives who had worked on the original investigations into the disappearances of Annie McCarrick, Jo Jo Dullard, Fiona Pender, Ciara
Breen, Fiona Sinnott and the Droichead Nua teenager met the Operation Trace team at Naas Garda Station. Over a full day the team was briefed to bring them up to date on each of the cases, including
any recent developments. One detective who helped to brief the Operation Trace team told me there was an optimistic mood at the conference.

The OVID system was used to compile a list of all known sexual and violent offenders dating back to the early 1980s. It included hundreds of convicted rapists and dozens of men
jailed for murdering women; it also extended to men convicted of exposing themselves in public and men who stole underwear from clothes-lines. The list covered everything that might label a person
as a sexual deviant. The names of many men who had no previous convictions were also nominated for inclusion. In the weeks after Operation Trace was set up the Gardaí received hundreds of
phone calls from members of the public naming people they thought might be serial killers. All these names were examined, and if there was any suspicion at all the name was put in the data-base.
Within a short time OVID contained the names and details of more than 7,500 people.

The publicity generated by the establishment of Operation Trace led also to a number of women contacting the team directly. These were women who had never made a complaint but had been the
victim of sexual assaults, or attempted assaults, or attempted abduction. Some had been beaten or sexually assaulted by former boy-friends; some had been attacked by other people known to them;
others had been attacked by strangers. Detectives found themselves meeting women who had never come forward before with their chilling stories of sexual attacks. Each victim said she was coming
forward not necessarily to bring criminal complaints herself but to try to help find any of the missing women.

While many phone calls received were anonymous, a number of people with a professional involvement also contacted the Gardaí with their concerns about certain individuals. They included
other gardaí who said they had little to base their suspicions on other than a hunch, as well as social workers and teachers, all of whom gave information in confidence.

In addition, the Operation Trace team did an extensive trawl through the cases of the six missing women. When the operation was established, in September 1998, there had been no arrests in
connection with the disappearance of Annie McCarrick, Jo Jo Dullard, Ciara Breen, or the Droichead Nua teenager. Three women and two men had been arrested in April 1997 in connection with the
disappearance of Fiona Pender, but no charges had been brought. And while no-one had been arrested directly in connection with the disappearance of Fiona Sinnott, a number of people who the
Gardaí hoped might have information were held in June 1998 and questioned about other crimes, including drug-dealing in south Co. Wexford. All had been released without charge.

At the back of the minds of the detectives working on Operation Trace was the hope that the computer might throw up a link that would lead to an arrest and in turn to the discovery of one or
more of the missing women.

While the Operation Trace team were beginning their work at Naas Garda Station a Co. Fermanagh man was anonymously contacting newspapers and radio stations claiming that in
late July 1998 he had given a young woman a lift from Droichead Nua to Carrickmacross, Co. Monaghan. The description he gave of the woman fitted the description of the missing teenager, and the
timing of the sighting coincided with the time of the disappearance. The fact that Carrickmacross was only ten miles from Kingscourt, Co. Cavan, where the teenager had stayed with friends the
weekend before her disappearance, also made the Gardaí hopeful that the caller was genuine. One detective ruefully remembered that everyone got their hopes up.

Following the release of the tape, a 44-year-old man was arrested in January 1999 and held on suspicion of wasting Garda time. However, no charges were brought. This man had
suffered the loss of his young daughter in a horrific road accident, and detectives did not believe that malice was the reason the story was concocted.

This hoax caller is only one example of dozens of hoaxers who contacted the Gardaí in the weeks following the launch of Operation Trace. Each phone call and each tip-off had to be
investigated fully, but it was a source of frustration to detectives that, for whatever disturbed reasons, some people were simply making up stories to get attention. In the process they were
wasting valuable Garda time.

The closest the Gardaí have ever come to bringing a prosecution in relation to any of the missing women is in the case of Ciara Breen, the seventeen-year-old who
disappeared from her home in Dundalk in February 1997. On 12 September 1999, a year after Operation Trace began its work, a Dundalk man in his thirties was arrested and questioned about the
abduction and probable murder of Ciara Breen. The Gardaí had this man earmarked as a suspect from early on in the investigation, but new information came to the attention of detectives from
Operation Trace that lent more weight to the suspicion. After being held and questioned for twelve hours, the man was released without charge. A file on the case was sent to the Director of Public
Prosecutions, who directed that no charges be brought at that time. The investigation into the abduction and murder of Ciara Breen is the only one that got this far. However, detectives from
Operation Trace did carry out a number of other arrests as OVID threw up new lines of inquiry.

One woman from the travelling community contacted the Gardaí soon after Operation Trace was set up to say she had information that might be of assistance in the search for missing women.
This woman was serving a prison sentence at the time for robbery. She sent word from the prison that she had particular information in relation to the disappearance of one missing woman. Detectives
met this woman and listened carefully as she outlined the information she had. They were conscious that they were dealing with a person who was serving a prison sentence, and that any such person
might be looking for something in return, such as temporary or early release. One detective told the woman that if she had any information at all that could ease the suffering of one family she had
a duty to help. The woman said she did want to help and that she was trying to better her own circumstances and do the right thing. She took the Gardaí to a place in Co. Kerry where she said
she thought there might be evidence that would assist them. Unfortunately she was unable to pinpoint an exact site that could be searched. The Gardaí are still pursuing this line of inquiry,
but without a more exact site detectives say that any search would be futile.

Nine people, including a number of women, were questioned by detectives from Operation Trace in connection with the disappearance of Jo Jo Dullard. Detectives were also hopeful
that one or more of these people might have information about the more recent disappearance of the Droichead Nua teenager. On foot of certain information a number of people in the Waterford area
were arrested and questioned about a number of crimes, including the abduction and murder of Jo Jo Dullard. Other people were also arrested throughout the country and taken to Naas Garda Station to
be questioned. One of those questioned had a previous conviction for a violent sexual assault on a woman. However, all those arrested were released without charge.