Annie McCarrick: Gardaí arrest chief suspect, search property after new information emerges
Gardaí arrested the chief suspect for the murder of Annie McCarrick, and searched a property previously linked to him, after receiving new information three decades after the New Yorker vanished in Sandymount, south Dublin, The Irish Times has learned. The man arrested on Thursday, who is in his 60s, was well known to Ms McCarrick.He was being interviewed by detectives on suspicion of the murder of Ms McCarrick (26) and can be questioned for up to 24 hours without charge. He is the first person arrested in the 32-year investigation into what has become one of the State’s highest-profile unsolved crimes.The arrested man has been the chief suspect in the case for a number of years, especially since it was upgraded from a missing person inquiry to a murder investigation two years ago.Detectives have made significant efforts to locate scores of people Ms McCarrick knew in Ireland, including close friends, others she socialised with, work colleagues and people she knew while studying in college here. They have been interviewed, as has a man who was close to the main suspect at the time and who gardaí travelled abroad to speak to earlier this year.The chief suspect moved in Ms McCarrick’s social circles. Gardaí spoke to him and many other people when Ms McCarrick went missing, and he has also been interviewed by detectives since that initial inquiry.Annie McCarrick. The man arrested was well known to Ms McCarrick. Photograph: PA Claimed sightings of Ms McCarrick on the day she vanished – Friday, March 26th, 1993 – have now been all but discounted by the investigation team. They include her getting a bus to Enniskerry, Co Wicklow, and being spotted in the village, with no evidence emerging to prove she was there on the day. A sighting of her in Johnnie Fox’s Pub, Glencullen, Co Dublin, about 6km from Enniskerry, has been completely discounted.Gardaí are now focused on Ms McCarrick’s movements in Sandymount, south Dublin, where she shared a rented property at St Cathryn’s Court with two flatmates. Detectives strongly suspect she met her killer in that area. They believe she was murdered on March 26th and her remains disposed of, to conceal the crime, by the time she was reported missing on Sunday, March 28th. She had failed to keep a dinner date with friends on the Saturday and did not go to work, as a waitress, on either the Saturday or Sunday. When her flatmates returned to their shared property on the Sunday, after being away for the weekend, they found groceries purchased by Ms McCarrick on Friday morning still unpacked. The alarm was then raised with gardaí.[ Timeline of Annie McCarrick case: False leads and setbacks over three decades in search for American womanOpens in new window ]As the suspect was being arrested on Thursday morning by members of the Garda’s south Dublin serious crime unit based in Irishtown station, the search of a Clondalkin house and garden began. The suspect was linked to the house, and Ms McCarrick is believed to have visited that property. However, the current occupants of the house, gardaí stressed, have no connection whatsoever to Ms McCarrick or the murder inquiry, having bought the property in the last 15 years. A metal fence was erected around the house on Thursday to ensure privacy for the Garda search team, with a mechanical digger and a saw for cutting concrete brought in to aid the search operation.Some neighbours who spoke to The Irish Times said there was “shock” and “curiosity” in the estate after the house was sealed off and gardaí, and the media, began arriving into the area.[ Annie McCarrick’s best friend from childhood: ‘I believe she knew the person responsible for her death’Opens in new window ]
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