The Cold Case Files

by Barry Cummins

  It was only when the Cold Case Unit was established in 2007 that a full and vigorous international pursuit of this suspected murderer was undertaken. Utilising the latest investigative techniques and capitalising on enhanced international police co-operation through Interpol, Gardaí put out a worldwide search strategy. Perhaps because the man had evaded justice for three decades, it turned out that he was still using his real name. He was tracked down to an address in England and arrangements were made for Gardaí to finally go and knock on his door. However, just before they travelled, word came back from British police that the man had died on 16 September 2007. He had visited his doctor a week beforehand complaining of breathing difficulties. At the time of his death, the man had fallen on hard times and had been homeless. He had no criminal convictions in any country, and it would appear that his conscience was plagued by events which had occurred in Ireland in the 1980s. Cold-case detectives often speak of how somebody’s circumstances can change dramatically following a murder. It might be the killer, or it might be a witness, but invariably people with something weighing heavily on their mind are more often than not affected greatly by what they know. In this particular case, the prime suspect for the murder of a 51-year-old woman spent a lifetime ‘on the run’ before dying penniless in a hostel at the age of 64. His only remaining possession was a harmonica, which was forensically examined to get DNA and absolutely confirmed the man’s identity.

  This particular murder can never be classified as ‘solved’. No-one has been brought to justice, but it would appear that if the suspect was still alive he would have faced a criminal trial. The murder is still unsolved, but no-one else is being sought in connection with the killing. The Cold Case Unit learned a valuable lesson in this case; sometimes time catches up with a killer before they do. However, the Unit are convinced that most of the hundreds of killers responsible for murders in the 1980s and 90s are still out there somewhere.

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  When detectives went to the Garda archives to begin looking at unsolved murder files, one of the first cases they came across was the killing of 54-year-old Nora Sheehan, who had been suffocated to death during an attack in Co. Cork in June 1981. Nora was murdered sometime between 6 June and 12 June. She had left her home at Ballyphehane on the southside of Cork city on the evening of Saturday 6 June 1981 and travelled to the South Infirmary Hospital where she was treated for a dog bite to her arm. After leaving the Accident and Emergency Department Nora had never made it home. Somewhere along her journey she was abducted. Six days later her body was found at Shippool Wood near Innishannon, seventeen miles west of Cork city. Two forestry workers found Nora’s body hidden down a steep incline behind a two-foot wall which divided the roadside and the wood. Pathologist Dr Robert Coakley would later conclude that Mrs Sheehan had been choked to death during a struggle sometime between four and seven days before his examination, and this indicated that Nora was quite possibly murdered on the night she had vanished in Cork city. Local Superintendent Edward Hogan and Detective Superintendent John Butler of the Garda Technical Bureau made an appeal at the time for help in catching the killer. The Gardaí had released photos of a fawn-coloured shoe, similar to the shoes Nora had been wearing on the night she disappeared. The shoe for the right foot had been found near Nora’s body, but the left one was missing. The shoes were under the brand ‘Model Girl’ by Tylers and had a brass type buckle.

  The initial murder investigation had identified a man in his thirties as being a suspect in the murder. However, that investigation hit a major difficulty when both the Pathologist, Dr Coakley, and Detective Superintendent John Butler died unexpectedly. As cold-case detectives read through the full murder file, they saw that there were a number of lines of enquiry that they could now pursue three decades on. The murder of this woman who had been randomly abducted while walking home from hospital had long troubled the people of Cork city and the original investigating Gardaí, who never forgot the case. The Cold Case Unit decided that the unsolved murder was one which they would fully review, and they publicly confirmed they were re-investigating the case.

  Another of the earliest unsolved murder files from the 1980s is the murder of Charles Self, who was found stabbed to death in his home in Monkstown in south Dublin in January 1982. Charles was originally from England and had worked as a set-designer with RTÉ since the early 70s. An analysis of the case indicated that Charles had somehow known his attacker. The murder weapon was a knife which had been taken from the kitchen and later discarded by the killer in the sitting room. Charles’s body was found in the hallway of his home close to the living room. A major investigation was undertaken at the time but the killer was never brought to justice.

  Another case where a man was attacked in his home was that of Christopher Payne, who suffered horrific injuries in an assault on 13 May 1988. The 38-year-old died at Beaumont Hospital on 28 November of that year—over six months after he had been attacked by a gang in his home at Rutland Grove in Crumlin. At the time of the attack Christopher was undergoing dialysis treatment for a kidney disorder and had just returned from a hospital visit when he was set upon by a number of individuals. The victim was struck on the head with a number of implements and was left in a vegetative state before he died. As part of a cold-case review, detectives have studied the full original murder file and have also enlisted the assistance of the State Pathologist to review the medical evidence.

  On the afternoon of 7 July 1989 the body of 32-year-old Limerick taxi-driver Henry Hurley was found at Reascamogue, Sixmilebridge, in Co. Clare. He had been beaten and strangled. Mr Hurley’s 1989 registered Nissan Sunny was found a short distance away. The victim was last seen alive at around 3 a.m. in Co. Clare and it’s believed two men had got into his taxi in Limerick city a short time earlier. The Garda Cold Case Unit are actively investigating this case, and part of their enquiries have focused on two Englishmen who had arrived in Ireland and had been travelling around the country at the time of the murder. It’s believed the motive for Mr Hurley’s murder was robbery. Similar to many other cold-case investigations, the Crimestoppers Trust has offered a reward for information leading to the conviction of Henry Hurley’s killers.

  When the Cold Case Unit was set up, one of the first cases to come its way was the murder of Brian Stack, who was the Chief Prison Officer at the high-security Portlaoise Prison. Brian was off duty and had just left the National Boxing Stadium on Dublin’s South Circular Road, when a gunman walked up behind him on the night of Friday 25 March 1983. The gunman pointed a gun at the back of Brian’s neck and fired once. Brian’s injury was fatal, but he did not die immediately: he would suffer for eighteen months, paralysed and brain-damaged before his body could no longer cope with the internal injuries caused by the bullet. Brian died on 29 September 1984. The father of three boys had dedicated his working life to serving the Irish State and, along with so many other murders, it is galling that Brian Stack’s killers have never been brought to justice. The gunman escaped on a stolen motorbike driven by an accomplice. What is without doubt is that Brian was shot because of his job at Portlaoise Prison. There are a number of lines of enquiry which are being actively pursued by Gardaí. Detectives have considered that the murder may have been carried out by paramilitaries, or by members of a criminal gang. The Cold Case Unit carried out a full review of the case and have made a number of recommendations in terms of a fresh investigation. Brian’s wife Sheila and his sons Austin, Kieran and Oliver have met with detectives on a number of occasions recently and have also visited Dáil Éireann as part of their efforts to see the case solved. The family know that if Brian was shot dead by paramilitaries, it is possible that because of the Good Friday Agreement the killers might not serve any great length of time in prison if they were to be convicted. But the Stack family want answers, they want someone to be held accountable, they want the killers to be identified.

  When the Cold Case Unit completed its review of the Brian Stack case they gave their recomme
ndations to another team of detectives from the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, who are now pursuing the case. That’s the way the Cold Case Unit operates: there are so many cold cases where if a fresh investigation will be particularly time-consuming (the Brian Stack case, for example, should see every prisoner who ever came in contact with the victim being interviewed), a team of other detectives is assigned to the case to work full-time on it.

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  At the Garda archive of unsolved murders in Santry in north Dublin, there are many other files from the 1980s. They include a 34-year-old man shot dead in Dublin on St Stephen’s Day in 1983. The victim was shot in the head with a shotgun at a flats complex at Dunne Street, off Portland Row on Dublin’s northside. Two men were arrested the following day and held under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act on suspicion of the murder. However, both men were later released and the murder would eventually become a cold case. This was the last murder of 1983, but there had been a number of others. For example, in April of that year a man was murdered in Ballymun in north Dublin. There was no link between the St Stephen’s Day murder and the April murder, but the one similarity is that no-one would ever be brought to justice for either killing.

  Indeed the year 1983 bore witness to a number of murders in Ireland which would never be solved. On 16 December 1983 recruit Garda Gary Sheehan and Army Private Patrick Kelly lost their lives as they assisted in the rescue in Co. Leitrim of IRA kidnap victim Don Tidey. The IRA killed a number of other people in the 1980s in crimes for which no-one would be brought to justice. John Corcoran was shot dead in Ballincollig in Co. Cork in March 1985 and the IRA killed two off-duty RUC officers in separate attacks in Co. Donegal. Samuel McClean was shot dead at Ballybofey on 2 June 1987, and fellow off-duty officer Harold Keys was killed in an IRA ambush at Ballintra in Co. Donegal on 15 January 1989. In August 1985 a Northern Ireland businessman was shot dead by the IRA at his family’s second home, a bungalow in Donnybrook in south Dublin. Forty-six-year-old Seamus McAvoy was a well-respected business figure who normally resided at the family’s estate at Coalisland in Co. Tyrone. At the funeral mass Cardinal Tomás Ó Fiaich described the killing as an attack on the very fabric of Irish Catholic people. The murder was never solved.

  In June 1980 a former member of the UDR was shot dead by the IRA while he was visiting a cattle-market in Ballybay, Co. Monaghan. One man was later jailed for life for the killing, but more than one person must have been involved. Two months later, another UDR member was shot dead by the IRA in the Republic of Ireland. The 59-year-old victim was ambushed 400 yards inside Co. Donegal near the border village of Pettigo. Gardaí made some progress in their investigations, but not everyone involved in the killing was brought to justice.

  Another murder which is blamed on the IRA is the shooting dead of Eugene Simons, whose body was found buried near Knockbridge in Co. Louth in May 1984. The victim was from Co. Down and had last been seen on 1 January 1981. His body was only discovered because soil had shifted at bogland and a man out walking his dog made the shocking discovery. A forensic examination showed the 26-year-old had been shot in the head. The Gardaí who carried out the investigation suspected Eugene had been killed by the IRA, who then buried his body in bogland just off the Dundalk to Carrickmacross road. The IRA never admitted responsibility for the killing. However, unbeknownst to everyone but themselves, the organisation had at that stage killed and secretly buried a number of other people in the 1970s and early 80s.

  The 1980s also saw a number of murders linked to an INLA feud. In January 1987 Mary McGlinchey, who was the wife of INLA leader Dominic McGlinchey, was shot dead as she bathed her sons in the family home in Dundalk. In February 1994 the McGlinchey children also lost their father, when he was shot dead at a phone-box in Drogheda. Neither the murder of Mary McGlinchey nor Dominic McGlinchey has ever been solved. Similarly no-one has been brought to justice for the double-murder of two INLA members shot dead at a hotel in Drogheda in January 1987, nor for the shooting dead in Dublin in 1991 of a hairdresser who was a former prominent INLA member. In 1982 a 37-year-old man from Co. Armagh was shot dead outside a pub at Dublin’s North Strand. The attack was blamed on the INLA. In October 1983 a Belfast man was shot dead and his body was left by a roadside near Redhills in Co. Cavan. Again the INLA were linked to the killing, and again no-one was ever brought to justice for the murder. In 1985, a 28-year-old man’s body was found just north of the border in Co. Armagh. It’s believed he was killed by the INLA at Ravensdale in Co. Louth. The murder was never solved, and if it ever is it will involve ongoing close co-operation between both police forces on the island.

  The concept of the work of the Cold Case Unit is that every unresolved murder is considered on its merits. If there is evidence to be pursued it will be pursued without fear or favour. The Unit recognises that every homicide victim has left grieving relatives and friends, all of whom deserve the very best from the State. No matter whether a murder victim was themselves involved in criminality or subversive activity, if their killer or killers can still be caught at this stage, they will be pursued.

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  Elsewhere in the archives there are files on a number of innocent women who were murdered in the 1980s and whose killings were never solved. A 38-year-old woman was found murdered in her home in south Dublin in 1985, and another woman, aged 35, was found dead on open ground in the south of the country in 1984. There is no link between these crimes. The woman found dead on open ground had been missing for two months, and State Pathologist Dr John Harbison came to the conclusion that the woman had been strangled and her body then hidden in a ditch. And there were other murders of women which would never be solved. In 1987, 76-year-old Lilly Carrick was murdered as she walked home in Dublin city, and in September of that year 79-year-old Nancy Smyth (see Chapter 2) was murdered in her Kilkenny home by an attacker who then set a fire in an unsuccessful attempt to hide his crime.

  In January 1985, an elderly woman was murdered at her home in Mallow in Co. Cork. The victim sustained broken ribs and injuries to her face and throat during the murderous attack. A suspect was identified and later stood trial at the Central Criminal Court, which heard that his fingerprint was found on a broken glass in the victim’s home and a bloodstain matching his blood group was discovered on a chair. The suspect’s wallet was also found at the scene. After an eight-day trial a jury found the accused not guilty. Having been found innocent the man left Ireland to live in England, but five years later he was jailed for life for killing a man in London. The prisoner was later repatriated to Ireland and died in an Irish prison. The circumstances of this entire case clearly show that behind every ‘unsolved’ murder there is a story, a bigger picture. The case of the woman murdered in Mallow is still officially unsolved, but no other suspects have emerged since her body was discovered over a quarter of a century ago.

  On 11 July 1987 29-year-old mother of two Antoinette Smith disappeared in Dublin city. She and a friend had earlier been to the David Bowie concert at Slane Castle. The two women had later gone into Dublin city and Antoinette’s friend had last seen her in the city centre. Almost nine months later, on 3 April 1988, a man out walking in the Dublin-Wicklow Mountains spotted a body. The weather over previous weeks had caused the soil at bogland to shift and Antoinette Smith was finally found. Her killer or killers had placed two plastic bags over her head and had buried her body in bogland at Glendoo Mountain near Glencree. Antoinette was still wearing her t-shirt from the David Bowie concert which read ‘David Bowie, Slane 87, Big Country, Groovy.’

  The failure to catch the killer of Antoinette Smith is very worrying, not just in terms of getting justice for Antoinette, but also given the fact that a number of women disappeared in Leinster in the 1990s. Gardaí often speak about the need to establish a crime scene to gather any traces which a killer may have left behind. Detectives often say if they could find the bodies of missing people who have been murdered, not only would they bring some sola
ce to grieving families, but they would also have much more evidential material to work with. The detectives who investigated Antoinette Smith’s murder carried out extensive enquiries but ultimately failed to catch the killer. So, someone who was adept at abducting a woman, murdering her and burying her body in the mountains continued to walk free, and many people have wondered if he, or they, have struck again since.

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  The 1980s saw a number of other unsolved murders. In 1986 a man was strangled to death in his home in Kells in Co. Meath. The 46-year-old victim lived alone and his body was found in the kitchen. Elsewhere, a 39-year-old man from Bray suffered fatal head injuries in an attack on Dublin’s northside in 1987. Later that year the body of a missing Dublin man was found in the Dublin Mountains. The discovery was made by a Garda search party, which was actually searching the mountainous terrain for the Beit paintings which had been stolen from Russborough House in Co. Wicklow. The man had been shot dead, and it’s believed his body lay undiscovered since early 1986. The decade ended as it had begun, with an innocent publican dying following an attack. In October 1981 Lorcan O’Byrne was murdered when armed gunmen burst into the living quarters above his family’s pub, The Anglers Rest near Dublin’s Chapelizod (see Chapter 1). In 1989, a publican was beaten during a robbery elsewhere in Leinster. He was treated in hospital but died some days later. His attacker was never brought to justice.