February 18, 2025 • 41 mins
In 2012, Elaine O’Hara vanished from Dublin without a trace. At first, police believed she had taken her own life—until a series of chance discoveries uncovered something far more disturbing. This episode of ClueTrail unravels the haunting case that exposed a secret life, a dangerous obsession, and Ireland’s most chilling modern murder.
Follow us as we piece together the story of trust, control, and a crime hidden in plain sight.
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Host (00:00):
Welcome to Clue Trail, the podcast where every story is a
mystery and every clue leads youdeeper into the unknown.
From unsolved crimes andpuzzling disappearances, to
hidden histories and curiouscoincidences, we piece together
(00:24):
the fragments to uncover thetruth.
or raise even more questions.
Some clues lead to answers,others to even greater
mysteries.
But one thing is certain, everytrail tells a story.
Are you ready to follow it?
Let's begin.
Today we take you to the rollinghills of Ireland, where a
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seemingly ordinary disappearancewould unravel into chilling
tales of manipulation, obsessionand murder.
Elaine O'Hara was akind-hearted woman which was
struggling with her own demonsand looking for connections in a
world that felt overwhelming.
But what began as a life ofquiet resilience ended in
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tragedy, revealing a sinisterweb of deceit and cruelty that
shocked the nation.
Elaine was born on 17th ofMarch 1976 to Frank, a banker,
and Eileen, which was aschoolteacher.
She was the oldest of fourchildren and they resided in a
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fairly affluent area in thesuburbs of Dublin.
When Elaine was around 15, herparents discovered she was a
victim of bullying and aroundthe same time, a good friend of
hers passed away in a roadaccident.
After this, she slid into adownward spiral of depression
and anxiety.
Elaine was also diagnosed withasthma, diabetes, and dyslexia,
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which further impacted herself-esteem and contributed to
the complex psychiatric issues.
Unfortunately, Elaine startedmanifesting self-harming, and by
the age 16, her younger sisterfound her in the bathroom where
she attempted taking her ownlife.
Her parents immediately lookedfor professional help, and
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Elaine was taken under the wingof psychiatrist Professor
Anthony Clare and admitted toSt.
Edmundsbury Hospital fortreatment.
Her family did indeed doeverything they could to help
Elaine until the day she passed.
At the hospital is when sheinformed her doctor of her
fantasies of being restrainedand imprisoned, but she did not
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expand further on this, at leastnot at that time.
After this hospitalisation,Elaine spent her teenage years
being heavily medicated and didnot have a normal teenage life.
The hospital would become hersafe place, where she would
return every time she couldn'tcope with the world.
Despite her struggles, Elainewas an incredible woman and she
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was so loved.
She loved children and caringfor others, and after school she
completed a course which led toher working in a crash, as well
as later on, She got a job in aprimary school as a childcare
assistant.
Unfortunately, in 2002, hermother passed away and she
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suffered a setback.
The hospital visits increased,all to help her cope with the
grief.
And in all this time, throughevery single period, her father
was there to help.
The next few years were veryhard for Elaine.
She was admitted several timesin the hospital after she would
attempt to take her own life.
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Everything was escalating andshe felt angry and sad and she
started withdrawing socially.
In 2006, Elaine went through ayet another setback when her
doctor passed away.
He has been trying to helpElaine since she was 16.
This was such a sad time forher.
It was around this time when,during an outburst, she
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disclosed to her father abouther sexual fantasies and that
she is seeing a married man.
It's noted that later on, shetold her new doctor that her dad
was left speechless.
Over the last few years beforeher death, it looked like her
condition was stable and shewould join outpatient sessions.
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Her doctors and family couldreally see the progress, but Yet
again, life got in the way whenshe started experiencing
financial problems as well asthe stress of an exam she was to
undertake for a teachingcourse.
In July, over a month beforeher disappearance, her flood
flooded and combined with allher worries, she considered
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taking her life again.
Fortunately, she had thepresence of mind to phone the
hospital and went in for supportas she couldn't cope.
On the hospital notes from herlater stay, it's noted that her
triggers were blamed onimpending exams, financial
issues, as well as loneliness,isolation, and dark fantasies.
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On August 22nd, Frank went topick up Elaine from the hospital
after she spent three weeksthere.
On that day, they had lunch,they had a very pleasant
conversation, and later on, theydrove to visit her mother's
grave.
This visit was emotional.
This is clearly a close familywith a strong bond.
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I can't even imagine how muchgrief they felt.
Elaine was happy to be out ofthe hospital and she was
definitely feeling much betterthan when she admitted herself.
She was particularly excited tovolunteer at the Tall Ship
Festival the next day, which wassomething she discussed with
her father as well as throughouther stay in the hospital.
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She even made plans to be pickedup by her father's partner the
next day, and she even attendeda volunteer's training a while
back.
Elaine would have missed it forthe world.
But, on 24th of August, Frankenters the Stepside Garda
station to seek help to findElaine.
She was already missing for twodays, and he was unable to
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reach her since he dropped heroff at her place.
He was panic-stricken.
Although Elaine seemed inreally good spirits, he was
thinking the worst.
So what happened that day?
On 23rd of August, Sheila,which was Frank's partner, was
going to give Elaine a lift at7.15am at the Tall Ship
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Festival.
She was living at the flatopposite Elaine, and she did
remember that the previousnight.
After Frank dropped her off,she didn't see any movements in
the flat.
She even sent Elaine a reminderaround 10.30pm to confirm the
pickup the next morning.
Receiving no answer is startingto worry Sheila, so she goes to
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Elaine's flat, but no answer.
She then proceeds to call Frankto let him know.
He actually believes she mighthave made her own way to the
town, and it should be fine, butwhen he still doesn't hear
anything from her...
He becomes increasingly worriedand he heads to her apartment,
just after 11 that morning.
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He had a key, so he let himselfin and in the apartment he finds
her iPhone, which was somethingshe would definitely have with
her at all times.
But Elaine is nowhere to befound.
Seeing her phone there, hebelieves she might have woken up
late and she rushed to thefestival.
But then...
When he is searching some more,he sees her bag as well.
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She wouldn't have left withouther bag, right?
Did she leave somewhere lastnight and didn't return?
Frank is becoming increasinglyworried.
He then proceeds to call thehospital where she was for a few
weeks in the chance she decidedto return.
They confirm she hasn't.
The last saving grace was thefestival.
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Frank calls them and that'swhen his hope turns to dread as
they confirm Elaine has notshowed up this morning.
As a parent, he is absolutelypanicked now and this is when he
calls all his children to helphim search for her.
His only thought was that shemight have taken her own life.
Immediately after, he heads tothe Garda station to report her
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missing.
So now, two days later, aftershe left the hospital, ready to
take on the world once more, herfather was at the police
station, giving them an in-depthdescription of her for the
missing persons report.
Meanwhile, her siblings werelooking for her, trying to
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retrace some of her possiblesteps the day before, so they
headed to the most likely placeshe would be, the cemetery.
This is where herbrother-in-law, Mark Charles,
spotted Elaine's car.
After her brother arrived atthe cemetery as well, they
called in for help to open thecar.
Inside they found her drivinglicense, cigarettes, a lighter,
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a sat-nav and phone chargers.
What was odd is that thesechargers were for phones they
knew she didn't have.
Basically, they only knew shehad an iPhone, which has a very
distinctive charger.
Almost immediately, guardpatrols were dispatched to
search the area and Frank joinedthem as well at the cemetery,
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fearing the worst.
Whilst a full-scale search atthe cemetery and park went on
the way, some of the familymembers and police returned to
her apartment to search for anyclues of where she might have
been.
Well, this search actuallyrevealed quite a few clues into
Elaine's life, a life that shewas keeping secret away from her
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family.
In a bedside table, they foundchains.
A PVC dress and a rubber maskwere littered all over the
apartment.
Her brother found printouts ofthe nearby woods, as well as the
VAR3 reservoir, and, in hernotebooks, the address of a
website called FetLife.
He discovered this was a fetishwebsite.
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The family was taken bysurprise.
They were not aware of theextent of Elaine's fantasies or
that she acted upon them.
Unfortunately, although awide-scale search was launched
the next day by the police,Elaine wasn't found.
Meanwhile, for the next week orso, the investigators continued
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to look into Elaine's life,searching her apartment and
looking through her personalitems, hopefully to understand
her moves that day and if shewas in contact with anyone.
They took several items intoevidence, such as phone, laptops
and all the fetish-relateditems to be examined.
They also reviewed CCTV in thebuilding to understand if she
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has returned after spending timewith her dad.
She spent a few minutes in, andthen she's seen leaving her
flat around 5pm, wearing abright blue zip top, navy
tracksuit bottoms and whitetrainers.
She gets in her car and drivesaway.
They tried to follow her carthrough the security cameras in
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town, and one in particularpicked their curiosity as she's
seen holding a phone in herhand.
Well, they found her phone inher flat.
So, which phone was this?
Her family were not aware ofher having another phone, nor
have seen her using anythingelse but her iPhone.
The investigators understoodthat Elaine might have kept
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parts of her life secret fromher family, so they needed to
look further.
Whilst the white search stillcarried on, they received a
batch of messages downloadedfrom her computer found in her
apartment.
These were generally messagesbetween her and members of
Fetish website.
Specifically, they foundmessages between her and eight
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others, which were morefrequent.
They did do their duediligence, but nothing further
came out of that.
Eventually, all of them wereruled out.
So, with this, Months passedby, and Elaine Kay slowly
dropped on their list ofpriorities.
No doubt, considering all thefamily and friends' statements
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on her struggles, the fact thatshe left her essentials behind
like a phone, cigarettes, aninhaler, as well as being seen
walking over a bridge in thecemetery, absent-minded, led the
police in thinking this was ashut case.
Although they followed over 130lines of inquiry and several
searches, All were leading backto the theory that Elaine has
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taken her own life.
The family had to mournElaine's disappearance and
sadly, by the time the firstanniversary of her disappearance
came, they were the only onesremembering.
But all is about to change.
On 21st of August 2013, soalmost a year later to the date,
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Magali Vernat, a dog trainer,was loading her seven dogs into
the car after a walk on thetrails through the Dublin
mountains.
All of a sudden, one of herdogs, Millie, runs back into the
woods and she returns with abone.
Thinking nothing of it and thatthe dog probably picked up an
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animal bone, she put it to theside, loaded Millie and left
about her business.
However, over the next twoweeks...
Each time they would walk onthose trails, mainly would run
into the bushes and return witha bone.
Few weeks later, on 10th ofSeptember, three men were
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patrolling the shoreline of theVetra Reservoir, which is about
30 kilometers away across themountain from the woods.
They were looking out for anyillegal fishermen when they came
across some yellow rope in thewater.
Out of curiosity, they pulledout a rope which had attached to
it several items.
These were some handcuffs,blindfold, a collar with buckle,
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and they also pulled out avest, a blue top, and a tea
towel.
They as well didn't really thinkanything of it, suspecting
maybe they were from a bachelorparty or something like that,
and left them on the side of thebridge and left.
However, one of the men, Billy,couldn't get his mind away from
these items.
He had a feeling that it mightbe more serious than just a
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prank or someone disposing ofsome party items.
He returned the next day to thesame spot, put all the items in
a bag and took them straight tothe Garda.
The officer on duty hung theclothes to dry and put the rest
into clear evidence bags.
Similar to Billy, the bag ofitems really piqued his
interest.
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James also had a feeling thatthere is more to this and
decided to investigate further.
So the next day, he went wherethe items were found.
Unfortunately, the weatherwasn't great that day.
It was very windy and hecouldn't scan the water
properly.
So he decided to return thefollowing day.
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On 13th of September, Magaliwas back to her normal routine,
walking the dogs and thengetting back into the car in the
same spot she did for the pasttwo weeks.
And...
Similar to the past two weeks,Milly would go into the woods,
but this time she wouldn't comeout when Varga called her, so
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she decided to go after her.
When she went towards the areato find Milly, deep into the
trees and bushes, she foundbones scattered everywhere.
Again, she thought nothing ofit, thinking it was maybe deer
bones.
She could hear Millie eating abone so she went to check and
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fetch her when she came across ablue pair of jogging trousers
with a white trainer and a bone.
She realized what she is seeingand everything felt like it was
closing on her.
She got Millie and rushed backto the car, drove home and
called her friend Frank Doyle.
Later on, Frank, Varga andanother friend went to the area
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to check again.
They came across bones andhair, which they thought may be
its fur, but upon walkingfurther in, they found a jawbone
with teeth still intact.
They didn't have any phonereception in the woods, so they
went back, and Frank Doylecalled the police to tell them
what they found in the woods.
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By 8pm that evening, there was afull investigation in that
area.
The investigators moved quicklyand they discovered, although
the bones were scattered, thatthe body was there for a period
of time.
As the remains were found in areally isolated area, it was
away from any footpath, inbetween bushes and trees, it was
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most likely a murder.
It was less likely someonewould have went into that
direction.
In the city morgue, Dr.
Michael Curtis began hisexamination of the remains.
By that point, The news that abody was found in the woods got
the attention of media and thenews crews were everywhere.
They heavily speculated thatthe remains were one of the
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three women which disappeared inthe area, thinking is the work
of a serial killer.
This was ruled out quickly asthe remains were identified of
being a woman aged between 27and 40, who had been dead
between one to two years.
The files of all missing womenwere looked into and one of the
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best matches would have beenrelated to Elaine's
disappearance.
The world forgot about Elaine atthat point, but they were about
to be reminded when, afterdental examination of the
remains with Elaine's record,they confirmed their suspicions.
They found her.
Almost a year since she hastragically passed.
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The police then proceeded toinform the family.
Frank and her siblings had beenin the limbo for over a year
now, but they would finally haveElaine back.
Also, by that point, Gardaruled out suicide.
They had a strong suspicionsomeone brought Elaine to that
spot and killed her there.
And whilst there might havebeen some comfort in knowing
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Elaine didn't take her life,Frank and her family would now
have to face the bitter truth.
A monster out there, took theirbeloved Elaine early from them.
Whilst this was happening,remember James, the guarder who
kept those items?
Well, he was about to begin hisshift, and those items were
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still nagging at him.
The weather luckily has gottenbetter, so he decided to make
his way to the reservoir.
His persistence definitely paidoff as this time the water was
crystal clear so he couldinvestigate properly.
He immediately spotted in thesame area where the men pulled
out the other items a pair ofhandcuffs.
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When he reached to pull themout, he also felt more items in
the shallow water which, when hepulled out, was a set of keys.
Amongst this there were carkeys, door keys, but also two
supermarket loyalty cards.
He also found a leather mask, akitchen knife, an inhaler, a
rope, and a rusty chain with ametal ring.
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He collected all these and tookthem back to the station and
bagged them.
He called the supermarket totry to identify the owner of
these cards.
His great work and persistencewas about to give the
investigators more clue into thedeath of Elaine.
The next day, the supermarketcalled him to tell him that the
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card belonged to Elaine O'Hara.
When he searched her in thedatabase, he found that she was
missing for over a year and herremains were found three days
earlier.
It's also so incredible how allthese events happen almost all
at once, as in Marga and Miliefinding her remains and at the
same time all these items beingfound by the men on the other
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side of the woods.
It's like everything wasworking towards finding Elaine.
Finding these items was crucialto the investigation.
It was proof that someonetraveled from where Elaine was
to dump the items on the otherside of the park.
That combined with the natureof the items, most of them being
bondage-related, cemented theinvestigators' belief that
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Elaine was murdered.
There were three crime scenesto be investigated now.
One was the woods where herbody was found.
The second was the reservoir.
which, upon furtherinvestigation, several more
bondage items were found, aswell as a Nokia phone, a knife,
some CDs and a rucksack.
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The third one was Elaine'sapartment, which, by some luck,
wasn't sold after beingrepossessed by the bank.
Almost all her items were gone,apart from some furniture and,
most important, the bedmattress.
This mattress has spots of bloodand puncture marks, which will
turn very important later on.
they now needed to find who wasresponsible for this cruel
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murder.
Based on the bondage itemsfound in the reservoir, the
investigators knew this could behow Elaine has met this person.
But who could have been?
Her family most definitely didnot have any idea of her
intimate life.
But, if you remember, she didhave an argument with her
father.
This is where she has told himabout her affair with a married
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man and that he would tie herup.
She has also mentioned thisaffair to her doctor and a
nurse.
But most importantly, she didmention to her doctor at that
time that this man would inflictsometimes superficial wounds to
her stomach and arms.
The news about the remains inthe woods were everywhere, and
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when Edna Lillis was watchingthe news on the evening of 17th
of September, a land photo cameon TV.
She immediately recognized herand decided to call the
detectives.
Edna and Elaine have beenpatients of the same hospital
six years earlier and struck afriendship, both confiding in
each other about theirstruggles.
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They kept in contact for manyyears after this, until about
five months before Elaine'sdisappearance.
It was at this last meetingwhen Elaine told Edna about the
man she was seeing.
She mentioned he is anarchitect, married, and he has
kids, but most importantly, Shetold her about their shared
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fantasy in bondage and the factthat he would inflict cuts on
her stomach.
Edna warned Elaine at that timeand when she had seen the news,
she felt compelled to comeforward with this information.
An important piece ofinformation Edna was able to
share with the police was thefact that she told Elaine to
keep this man's detailssomewhere in a notebook, just in
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case.
Elaine then told her she hadall these details of the
relationship stored somewhere.
Obviously, the police knew theyneeded to find these.
And if anything, he could justshare more information about
Elaine, which could help infinding clues to what might have
happened.
But we can deduct by now thathe was definitely a leading
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suspect.
So they started to look into allthe evidence and CCTV in hopes
of revealing his identity.
Previously, they have onlychecked two days of CCTV.
Now they would embark inchecking 219 days in hopes of
finding any clues.
This was a mammoth task andtook weeks.
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Meanwhile, the investigatorsgot back from the tech team all
Elaine's online activity.
Specifically, her text messagesrecovered from her laptop.
They were able to extractaround 4,000 messages out of
which half-word between Elaineand two phone numbers.
They managed to track down onephone number to where it was
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purchased, as well as findingthis number on Elaine's iPhone
under David.
This phone was purchased in 2011alongside with a prepaid SIM
and it was solely used forcommunication with Elaine.
The messages they extractedfurther instilled the
investigation's belief that thiswas indeed the man that Elaine
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was talking about.
In these messages, he wasexpressing his need of hurting
Elaine, and also through thesemessages, it was confirmed he
has indeed hurt Elaine in thepast, aligning with what she
told Edna and her father.
It was also found that Elainehas tried to cut communication
several times, but he would comeback again and she was unable
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to resist him.
In contrast to Elaine'sfragility, this guy was
manipulative and showed noempathy towards her.
Reading through these messages,you can clearly see what his
intentions are.
His only desire is to satisfyhimself.
Now, you're probably thinking,isn't this the core of how the
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relationships between a dom anda sub are?
Where the dominant one, or themaster, would have total control
of the submissive partner,using the latter for their own
desires?
Yes, that would be true, butgenerally there is a consensual
exchange of power between Andthere are very specific rules
set for the benefit of bothparties.
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In this case, and readingthrough some of these messages,
combined with the fact thatElaine has indeed tried to break
contact with him, it's clear hewas pushing some boundaries
that Elaine was not ready tobreak.
They were pretty sure at thatpoint they found Elaine's
killer.
They needed to identify him.
Using the text messages, theytried to create a timeline,
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which they would then use tocheck CCTV in the building.
Elaine did mention he had a keyto her flat, so surely he must
have visited her.
And they did manage to findwhat they were looking for.
On 23rd of June, theinvestigators did see a man
entering Elaine's building andwaiting for the lift.
Unfortunately, there was noCCTV on the floor Elaine was
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living, so they weren't surewhere he went.
But the breakthrough camequickly as only a few days
later, on July 9th, they noticedthe same man entering the
building with Elaine.
He was trying to evade theCCTV, purposely keeping his head
down.
He was then seen entering thebuilding one more time, two days
later, on 11th of July.
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Their next step was to try andfind out more about Elaine's
involvement into the BDSM world,which might then bring them to
the killer's identity.
They found several pieces ofevidence from the computer, such
as photos, some letters andfilms, all related to BDSM.
Elaine was an adult and free tonavigate her fantasies.
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What was important to the casewere the maps they found for the
woods where she was found, aswell as her usernames for the
websites she was using to meetpeople with the same fetishes.
Looking specifically into theseusernames and her online
presence into the websites, Theinvestigators found out she
might have met her killer asearly as 2007, when she first
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started visiting these sites.
So, Detective Wallace, the leadinvestigator, started the long
process of trying to identifyanyone who Elaine talked to on
these websites, as well ashaving a team still looking
through the message exchange.
By 27th of September, 10 dayssince the investigation started,
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they went through most of thecontents they found.
and they found something veryinteresting.
In one of the conversationsbetween Elaine and this man, he
was specifically mentioningabout a flying competition he
was in, and he expressed hisdisappointment in coming in
fifth place.
Although this seemed like anincredible lead at that point,
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the pilot register and a checkof the competition during the
time the message was sent didn'tbring any good leads.
That was until one of thedetectives had a lightbulb
moment.
He remembered seeing peopleflying model aircraft one Sunday
and wondered, is this what theman was talking about?
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They looked into this furtherand using the date from the
messages, they managed to findthe competition taking place
around that time.
They knew he came in fifthplace, which she was upset about
enough to mention it to her,and when checking the event
rankings, the man in fifth placewas called Graham Dyer.
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This name immediately rang abell to them as when they were
looking through Elaine'sjournal, they found a phone
number along with the nameGraham.
Could this be it?
Did they find him?
They needed to be sure so theystarted looking into his
background.
They found out he was working asan architect and he lived near
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Cabin Tilly.
The phone used to messageElaine was mainly located near
Lower Bagot Street.
Basically, the cell data wasplacing the phone next to this
area.
His home address is also nearthis area.
Also, the shop where the phonewas purchased from is a short
walk from Lower Bagot Street.
They managed to find a photo ofhim from his workplace and when
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comparing with the CCTV, therewas a resemblance.
Further checks also revealedthat he was married and had a
child, a daughter, in March2011.
The birth of his daughter wasalso in the text messages.
He has informed Elaine aboutthis.
The detectives were stunned.
They found him.
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So, who was Graham Dyer?
He was unremarkable.
Most certainly, everyoneexpected the face of a monster,
whatever that might look like.
But he wasn't it.
He was 5'5", boyish face, andnothing really to make him stand
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out of a crowd.
Nothing like the man in thosetexts with Elaine.
Evil comes in all shapes andsizes, and if anything, the most
unremarkable ones will go byunnoticed.
But was this father of two now,living in the affluent suburbs
of Dublin, the monster whokilled a woman and was talking
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about stabbing and killinginnocents?
They started by following himaround, laying low for now not
to spook him.
If he was indeed their man,they wouldn't know what he might
be capable of doing.
if he found out he is beingunder suspicions.
Elaine was all over the news.
Surely he must have seen them.
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Yet, he was unbothered by it.
He seemed unfazed.
There was nothing out of theordinary that he did whilst he
was being watched.
They needed to have an ironcladcase.
Nothing was to be left tochance.
They got evidence from theNokia phone found in the lake.
Although the phone wasdestroyed, they could salvage
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the SIM card.
This phone had only one numbersaved, which was the number from
the MacBook as well.
Basically, both phones werebrought only for the purpose of
communicating with Elaine.
Also, the analysts were able toconfirm, using cell data, that
Ayer's work phone and the othertwo phone numbers used to
communicate with Elaine were atthe same place, same time.
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Meaning, there was a strongprobability he had the phones.
What are the chances thatsomeone else is at the same
place and time as him textingElaine.
A third search of the reservoirwas conducted, as they needed to
find the final Nokia phonepurchased.
And how it happened?
The police found it.
Of course, alongside with moresex toys and a ski mask.
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Last piece of the puzzle wastrying to prove Elaine had
indeed contact with Dyer.
They needed to prove that heknew her.
Elaine joined the BDSM sites in2007, and by September that
year, they found out she wasconsistently talking with
someone.
Also, the investigators foundout that Dyer's work phone sent
(33:11):
a total of 847 messages toElaine between January 2008 and
December 2009.
And although the contents ofthese messages were lost, how
could he now deny knowingElaine?
But they knew that knowingsomeone or having an online
relationship is not proof enoughthat he killed her.
(33:32):
Luckily, on the last phone theyfound, which was connected to
Dyer, they could extract over260 messages, which would paint
a picture of what happenedthere.
There was a long exchangebetween them, and he would
consistently talk about hisfantasies on taking someone's
life.
On the days before Elaine hasdisappeared, she would push back
(33:56):
on this.
One of these messages reallybroke my heart.
Elaine was saying, and I quote,'Please don't mention killing
for a while until I settle backto life'.
That was sent on the day shedisappeared.
That day, Elaine got anothermessage with the location of
where they were going to me.
(34:16):
She was instructed to head tothe cemetery at 5.30, leave her
iPhone behind and only take herother phone with her, the Nokia.
So, she spent a few hours thatday with her father, and at 5.05
p.m.
that evening, CCTV camerarecorded Elaine leaving her
apartment for the last time.
At the same time, he switchedoff his work phone.
(34:39):
At 5.22, Elaine parked her carat the cemetery, and
coincidentally, his Nokia phonewas in the vicinity at the same
time.
She was instructed through textto go to a footpath, and this
is where she got lost and askeda jogger for directions.
The final text exchange, onceshe was at the foothill,
(34:59):
instructed Elaine to go down tothe shore and wait.
After that, no other exchangesbetween the two founds.
The garda believed Elaine wasdead within an hour from this
exchange.
They suspect while she was atthe shore, he was waiting in his
car.
Then he got her to go into hiscar and drove to the other side
of the woods.
(35:19):
Once they got there, only heknows exactly what happened.
They couldn't determine howmany times Elaine was stabbed
and what were the circumstances,but they believe it all
happened within a three-hourtime frame.
His work phone, which waspreviously switched off, was
back online at 9pm that eveningnext to his house.
(35:41):
By October, they were workinghard on planning his arrest.
They had an overwhelming amountof evidence by that point and
they were ready to move in.
On Thursday 17th of October at7am, the squad was heading to
his house to arrest him.
Detective Sergeant Woods rangthe doorbell and he appeared at
(36:05):
the door in his pyjama bottoms.
He was informed of his arrestin relation to Elaine's murder
and he seemed surprised.
Now with him in custody, theymoved to searching the house as
well as trying to talk with hiswife, hopefully to get the last
pieces of evidence.
They were specifically curiousif the wife knew anything about
(36:26):
it, but she was as shocked asanyone else about his behavior.
Nevertheless, they concludedshe wasn't involved and Dyer
wouldn't see her nor thechildren until the trial.
Their marriage ended that daywhen she found out what he was
arrested for.
His interrogation was a veryinteresting read.
(36:47):
At first, the investigatorstried to hone in on DNA and what
they could find, But after sixhours, he was mostly concerned
on how this will affect him, hiswife and his job.
Not once he expressed anyconcern regarding Elaine.
Obviously, when the phone andCCTV evidence were shown to him
(37:08):
in the second interview, hedenied everything and
specifically, he denied knowingElaine.
Also, by this time, the casewas blowing up in the media and
he really hated that.
He wanted to be perceived in adifferent way.
And now, with all the mediacoverage, he was perceived as a
(37:28):
cold-blooded murderer.
Well, allegedly at that pointin time.
The trial began on 22nd ofJanuary 2015, and the
prosecutors focused on thelitany of evidence they found.
They focused on the textmessages sent between Elaine and
Dyer, many depicting hisobsession with knives and
(37:51):
stabbing, as well as evidencefrom some homemade videos.
In the absence of evidencedetermining the cause of death
of Elaine, the prosecutors hadto present, beyond a reasonable
doubt, through CCTV and textmessages, that Dyer was plotting
and carried out his plan tokill Elaine.
There were also some home moviesfound, and in this instance,
(38:13):
the judge didn't allow anypublic in the court that day to
view these videos.
which was for the best.
The videos were incrediblydamning, showing his obsession
with stabbing and killing.
His lawyer argued that yes,there was a relationship, but
there was no evidence confirminghe has killed Elaine.
They also specifically focusedon Elaine's struggles with her
(38:36):
mental health and her manyhospital admissions, saying that
Elaine could have very welltaken her life.
Which maybe would make sense ifElaine was going through stuff
at that time, But if youremember, she was very excited
about her plans for the upcomingday.
Also, she has specifically askedhim in some of these messages
to stop talking about stabbingand killing.
(38:59):
She was in a differentheadspace at that time.
This was also confirmed by manyof the witnesses.
Yes, Elaine had plenty ofstruggles, but not that day.
Also, in preparation for histrial, he was actually advised
by his team to offer a guiltyplea to manslaughter, but he
(39:19):
absolutely refused.
After 37 days in court, spreadover eight weeks, on 13th of
March 2015, the state restedtheir case.
A week later, on Thursday 19,defense called for another three
witnesses, but nothing relevantwas discussed.
That would bring the end of agrueling trial.
(39:40):
I cannot even imagine howElaine's family must have felt
this whole time, finding out allthe intimate details as well as
how this lunatic was treatedtheir loved one.
The prosecutors, in theirending statements, outlined that
Dyer has exploded Elaine togratify his sexual fantasies.
He lured her out and acted uponthese fantasies, which ended up
(40:05):
with Elaine being murdered.
The defense reminded the jurythat the prosecutors had to
prove that he killed Elaine orintentionally caused her serious
injury.
Despite all this evidenceagainst him, he remained
outwardly cocky and confident,even telling the prison wards
that he plans to celebrate hisacquittal with a steak and wine.
(40:27):
Well, he got to celebrate withthe prison mill as on 27th of
March 2015, he was convicted ofElaine's murder which came with
a life sentence.
This is the tragic story ofElaine O'Hara, a kind soul who
loves her family and friends.
(40:47):
She has shown strength over theyears in dealing with her
struggles and all she wanted wasto form a connection with
someone.
Unfortunately, that someone wasevil.
Thank you for listening totoday's episode and see you next
time for a new one.
Welcome to Clue Trail, the podcast where every story is a
mystery and every clue leads youdeeper into the unknown.
From unsolved crimes andpuzzling disappearances, to
hidden histories and curiouscoincidences, we piece together
(00:24):
the fragments to uncover thetruth.
or raise even more questions.
Some clues lead to answers,others to even greater
mysteries.
But one thing is certain, everytrail tells a story.
Are you ready to follow it?
Let's begin.
Today we take you to the rollinghills of Ireland, where a
(00:48):
seemingly ordinary disappearancewould unravel into chilling
tales of manipulation, obsessionand murder.
Elaine O'Hara was akind-hearted woman which was
struggling with her own demonsand looking for connections in a
world that felt overwhelming.
But what began as a life ofquiet resilience ended in
(01:10):
tragedy, revealing a sinisterweb of deceit and cruelty that
shocked the nation.
Elaine was born on 17th ofMarch 1976 to Frank, a banker,
and Eileen, which was aschoolteacher.
She was the oldest of fourchildren and they resided in a
(01:31):
fairly affluent area in thesuburbs of Dublin.
When Elaine was around 15, herparents discovered she was a
victim of bullying and aroundthe same time, a good friend of
hers passed away in a roadaccident.
After this, she slid into adownward spiral of depression
and anxiety.
Elaine was also diagnosed withasthma, diabetes, and dyslexia,
(01:56):
which further impacted herself-esteem and contributed to
the complex psychiatric issues.
Unfortunately, Elaine startedmanifesting self-harming, and by
the age 16, her younger sisterfound her in the bathroom where
she attempted taking her ownlife.
Her parents immediately lookedfor professional help, and
(02:19):
Elaine was taken under the wingof psychiatrist Professor
Anthony Clare and admitted toSt.
Edmundsbury Hospital fortreatment.
Her family did indeed doeverything they could to help
Elaine until the day she passed.
At the hospital is when sheinformed her doctor of her
fantasies of being restrainedand imprisoned, but she did not
(02:39):
expand further on this, at leastnot at that time.
After this hospitalisation,Elaine spent her teenage years
being heavily medicated and didnot have a normal teenage life.
The hospital would become hersafe place, where she would
return every time she couldn'tcope with the world.
Despite her struggles, Elainewas an incredible woman and she
(03:05):
was so loved.
She loved children and caringfor others, and after school she
completed a course which led toher working in a crash, as well
as later on, She got a job in aprimary school as a childcare
assistant.
Unfortunately, in 2002, hermother passed away and she
(03:26):
suffered a setback.
The hospital visits increased,all to help her cope with the
grief.
And in all this time, throughevery single period, her father
was there to help.
The next few years were veryhard for Elaine.
She was admitted several timesin the hospital after she would
attempt to take her own life.
(03:46):
Everything was escalating andshe felt angry and sad and she
started withdrawing socially.
In 2006, Elaine went through ayet another setback when her
doctor passed away.
He has been trying to helpElaine since she was 16.
This was such a sad time forher.
It was around this time when,during an outburst, she
(04:11):
disclosed to her father abouther sexual fantasies and that
she is seeing a married man.
It's noted that later on, shetold her new doctor that her dad
was left speechless.
Over the last few years beforeher death, it looked like her
condition was stable and shewould join outpatient sessions.
(04:32):
Her doctors and family couldreally see the progress, but Yet
again, life got in the way whenshe started experiencing
financial problems as well asthe stress of an exam she was to
undertake for a teachingcourse.
In July, over a month beforeher disappearance, her flood
flooded and combined with allher worries, she considered
(04:56):
taking her life again.
Fortunately, she had thepresence of mind to phone the
hospital and went in for supportas she couldn't cope.
On the hospital notes from herlater stay, it's noted that her
triggers were blamed onimpending exams, financial
issues, as well as loneliness,isolation, and dark fantasies.
(05:22):
On August 22nd, Frank went topick up Elaine from the hospital
after she spent three weeksthere.
On that day, they had lunch,they had a very pleasant
conversation, and later on, theydrove to visit her mother's
grave.
This visit was emotional.
This is clearly a close familywith a strong bond.
(05:42):
I can't even imagine how muchgrief they felt.
Elaine was happy to be out ofthe hospital and she was
definitely feeling much betterthan when she admitted herself.
She was particularly excited tovolunteer at the Tall Ship
Festival the next day, which wassomething she discussed with
her father as well as throughouther stay in the hospital.
(06:04):
She even made plans to be pickedup by her father's partner the
next day, and she even attendeda volunteer's training a while
back.
Elaine would have missed it forthe world.
But, on 24th of August, Frankenters the Stepside Garda
station to seek help to findElaine.
She was already missing for twodays, and he was unable to
(06:29):
reach her since he dropped heroff at her place.
He was panic-stricken.
Although Elaine seemed inreally good spirits, he was
thinking the worst.
So what happened that day?
On 23rd of August, Sheila,which was Frank's partner, was
going to give Elaine a lift at7.15am at the Tall Ship
(06:52):
Festival.
She was living at the flatopposite Elaine, and she did
remember that the previousnight.
After Frank dropped her off,she didn't see any movements in
the flat.
She even sent Elaine a reminderaround 10.30pm to confirm the
pickup the next morning.
Receiving no answer is startingto worry Sheila, so she goes to
(07:13):
Elaine's flat, but no answer.
She then proceeds to call Frankto let him know.
He actually believes she mighthave made her own way to the
town, and it should be fine, butwhen he still doesn't hear
anything from her...
He becomes increasingly worriedand he heads to her apartment,
just after 11 that morning.
(07:35):
He had a key, so he let himselfin and in the apartment he finds
her iPhone, which was somethingshe would definitely have with
her at all times.
But Elaine is nowhere to befound.
Seeing her phone there, hebelieves she might have woken up
late and she rushed to thefestival.
But then...
When he is searching some more,he sees her bag as well.
(07:55):
She wouldn't have left withouther bag, right?
Did she leave somewhere lastnight and didn't return?
Frank is becoming increasinglyworried.
He then proceeds to call thehospital where she was for a few
weeks in the chance she decidedto return.
They confirm she hasn't.
The last saving grace was thefestival.
(08:16):
Frank calls them and that'swhen his hope turns to dread as
they confirm Elaine has notshowed up this morning.
As a parent, he is absolutelypanicked now and this is when he
calls all his children to helphim search for her.
His only thought was that shemight have taken her own life.
Immediately after, he heads tothe Garda station to report her
(08:39):
missing.
So now, two days later, aftershe left the hospital, ready to
take on the world once more, herfather was at the police
station, giving them an in-depthdescription of her for the
missing persons report.
Meanwhile, her siblings werelooking for her, trying to
(09:00):
retrace some of her possiblesteps the day before, so they
headed to the most likely placeshe would be, the cemetery.
This is where herbrother-in-law, Mark Charles,
spotted Elaine's car.
After her brother arrived atthe cemetery as well, they
called in for help to open thecar.
Inside they found her drivinglicense, cigarettes, a lighter,
(09:23):
a sat-nav and phone chargers.
What was odd is that thesechargers were for phones they
knew she didn't have.
Basically, they only knew shehad an iPhone, which has a very
distinctive charger.
Almost immediately, guardpatrols were dispatched to
search the area and Frank joinedthem as well at the cemetery,
(09:46):
fearing the worst.
Whilst a full-scale search atthe cemetery and park went on
the way, some of the familymembers and police returned to
her apartment to search for anyclues of where she might have
been.
Well, this search actuallyrevealed quite a few clues into
Elaine's life, a life that shewas keeping secret away from her
(10:07):
family.
In a bedside table, they foundchains.
A PVC dress and a rubber maskwere littered all over the
apartment.
Her brother found printouts ofthe nearby woods, as well as the
VAR3 reservoir, and, in hernotebooks, the address of a
website called FetLife.
He discovered this was a fetishwebsite.
(10:29):
The family was taken bysurprise.
They were not aware of theextent of Elaine's fantasies or
that she acted upon them.
Unfortunately, although awide-scale search was launched
the next day by the police,Elaine wasn't found.
Meanwhile, for the next week orso, the investigators continued
(10:52):
to look into Elaine's life,searching her apartment and
looking through her personalitems, hopefully to understand
her moves that day and if shewas in contact with anyone.
They took several items intoevidence, such as phone, laptops
and all the fetish-relateditems to be examined.
They also reviewed CCTV in thebuilding to understand if she
(11:14):
has returned after spending timewith her dad.
She spent a few minutes in, andthen she's seen leaving her
flat around 5pm, wearing abright blue zip top, navy
tracksuit bottoms and whitetrainers.
She gets in her car and drivesaway.
They tried to follow her carthrough the security cameras in
(11:35):
town, and one in particularpicked their curiosity as she's
seen holding a phone in herhand.
Well, they found her phone inher flat.
So, which phone was this?
Her family were not aware ofher having another phone, nor
have seen her using anythingelse but her iPhone.
The investigators understoodthat Elaine might have kept
(11:56):
parts of her life secret fromher family, so they needed to
look further.
Whilst the white search stillcarried on, they received a
batch of messages downloadedfrom her computer found in her
apartment.
These were generally messagesbetween her and members of
Fetish website.
Specifically, they foundmessages between her and eight
(12:19):
others, which were morefrequent.
They did do their duediligence, but nothing further
came out of that.
Eventually, all of them wereruled out.
So, with this, Months passedby, and Elaine Kay slowly
dropped on their list ofpriorities.
No doubt, considering all thefamily and friends' statements
(12:40):
on her struggles, the fact thatshe left her essentials behind
like a phone, cigarettes, aninhaler, as well as being seen
walking over a bridge in thecemetery, absent-minded, led the
police in thinking this was ashut case.
Although they followed over 130lines of inquiry and several
searches, All were leading backto the theory that Elaine has
(13:04):
taken her own life.
The family had to mournElaine's disappearance and
sadly, by the time the firstanniversary of her disappearance
came, they were the only onesremembering.
But all is about to change.
On 21st of August 2013, soalmost a year later to the date,
(13:28):
Magali Vernat, a dog trainer,was loading her seven dogs into
the car after a walk on thetrails through the Dublin
mountains.
All of a sudden, one of herdogs, Millie, runs back into the
woods and she returns with abone.
Thinking nothing of it and thatthe dog probably picked up an
(13:49):
animal bone, she put it to theside, loaded Millie and left
about her business.
However, over the next twoweeks...
Each time they would walk onthose trails, mainly would run
into the bushes and return witha bone.
Few weeks later, on 10th ofSeptember, three men were
(14:11):
patrolling the shoreline of theVetra Reservoir, which is about
30 kilometers away across themountain from the woods.
They were looking out for anyillegal fishermen when they came
across some yellow rope in thewater.
Out of curiosity, they pulledout a rope which had attached to
it several items.
These were some handcuffs,blindfold, a collar with buckle,
(14:36):
and they also pulled out avest, a blue top, and a tea
towel.
They as well didn't really thinkanything of it, suspecting
maybe they were from a bachelorparty or something like that,
and left them on the side of thebridge and left.
However, one of the men, Billy,couldn't get his mind away from
these items.
He had a feeling that it mightbe more serious than just a
(14:59):
prank or someone disposing ofsome party items.
He returned the next day to thesame spot, put all the items in
a bag and took them straight tothe Garda.
The officer on duty hung theclothes to dry and put the rest
into clear evidence bags.
Similar to Billy, the bag ofitems really piqued his
interest.
(15:19):
James also had a feeling thatthere is more to this and
decided to investigate further.
So the next day, he went wherethe items were found.
Unfortunately, the weatherwasn't great that day.
It was very windy and hecouldn't scan the water
properly.
So he decided to return thefollowing day.
(15:40):
On 13th of September, Magaliwas back to her normal routine,
walking the dogs and thengetting back into the car in the
same spot she did for the pasttwo weeks.
And...
Similar to the past two weeks,Milly would go into the woods,
but this time she wouldn't comeout when Varga called her, so
(16:03):
she decided to go after her.
When she went towards the areato find Milly, deep into the
trees and bushes, she foundbones scattered everywhere.
Again, she thought nothing ofit, thinking it was maybe deer
bones.
She could hear Millie eating abone so she went to check and
(16:23):
fetch her when she came across ablue pair of jogging trousers
with a white trainer and a bone.
She realized what she is seeingand everything felt like it was
closing on her.
She got Millie and rushed backto the car, drove home and
called her friend Frank Doyle.
Later on, Frank, Varga andanother friend went to the area
(16:48):
to check again.
They came across bones andhair, which they thought may be
its fur, but upon walkingfurther in, they found a jawbone
with teeth still intact.
They didn't have any phonereception in the woods, so they
went back, and Frank Doylecalled the police to tell them
what they found in the woods.
(17:08):
By 8pm that evening, there was afull investigation in that
area.
The investigators moved quicklyand they discovered, although
the bones were scattered, thatthe body was there for a period
of time.
As the remains were found in areally isolated area, it was
away from any footpath, inbetween bushes and trees, it was
(17:31):
most likely a murder.
It was less likely someonewould have went into that
direction.
In the city morgue, Dr.
Michael Curtis began hisexamination of the remains.
By that point, The news that abody was found in the woods got
the attention of media and thenews crews were everywhere.
They heavily speculated thatthe remains were one of the
(17:53):
three women which disappeared inthe area, thinking is the work
of a serial killer.
This was ruled out quickly asthe remains were identified of
being a woman aged between 27and 40, who had been dead
between one to two years.
The files of all missing womenwere looked into and one of the
(18:14):
best matches would have beenrelated to Elaine's
disappearance.
The world forgot about Elaine atthat point, but they were about
to be reminded when, afterdental examination of the
remains with Elaine's record,they confirmed their suspicions.
They found her.
Almost a year since she hastragically passed.
(18:36):
The police then proceeded toinform the family.
Frank and her siblings had beenin the limbo for over a year
now, but they would finally haveElaine back.
Also, by that point, Gardaruled out suicide.
They had a strong suspicionsomeone brought Elaine to that
spot and killed her there.
And whilst there might havebeen some comfort in knowing
(19:01):
Elaine didn't take her life,Frank and her family would now
have to face the bitter truth.
A monster out there, took theirbeloved Elaine early from them.
Whilst this was happening,remember James, the guarder who
kept those items?
Well, he was about to begin hisshift, and those items were
(19:24):
still nagging at him.
The weather luckily has gottenbetter, so he decided to make
his way to the reservoir.
His persistence definitely paidoff as this time the water was
crystal clear so he couldinvestigate properly.
He immediately spotted in thesame area where the men pulled
out the other items a pair ofhandcuffs.
(19:46):
When he reached to pull themout, he also felt more items in
the shallow water which, when hepulled out, was a set of keys.
Amongst this there were carkeys, door keys, but also two
supermarket loyalty cards.
He also found a leather mask, akitchen knife, an inhaler, a
rope, and a rusty chain with ametal ring.
(20:09):
He collected all these and tookthem back to the station and
bagged them.
He called the supermarket totry to identify the owner of
these cards.
His great work and persistencewas about to give the
investigators more clue into thedeath of Elaine.
The next day, the supermarketcalled him to tell him that the
(20:30):
card belonged to Elaine O'Hara.
When he searched her in thedatabase, he found that she was
missing for over a year and herremains were found three days
earlier.
It's also so incredible how allthese events happen almost all
at once, as in Marga and Miliefinding her remains and at the
same time all these items beingfound by the men on the other
(20:52):
side of the woods.
It's like everything wasworking towards finding Elaine.
Finding these items was crucialto the investigation.
It was proof that someonetraveled from where Elaine was
to dump the items on the otherside of the park.
That combined with the natureof the items, most of them being
bondage-related, cemented theinvestigators' belief that
(21:15):
Elaine was murdered.
There were three crime scenesto be investigated now.
One was the woods where herbody was found.
The second was the reservoir.
which, upon furtherinvestigation, several more
bondage items were found, aswell as a Nokia phone, a knife,
some CDs and a rucksack.
(21:36):
The third one was Elaine'sapartment, which, by some luck,
wasn't sold after beingrepossessed by the bank.
Almost all her items were gone,apart from some furniture and,
most important, the bedmattress.
This mattress has spots of bloodand puncture marks, which will
turn very important later on.
they now needed to find who wasresponsible for this cruel
(21:59):
murder.
Based on the bondage itemsfound in the reservoir, the
investigators knew this could behow Elaine has met this person.
But who could have been?
Her family most definitely didnot have any idea of her
intimate life.
But, if you remember, she didhave an argument with her
father.
This is where she has told himabout her affair with a married
(22:22):
man and that he would tie herup.
She has also mentioned thisaffair to her doctor and a
nurse.
But most importantly, she didmention to her doctor at that
time that this man would inflictsometimes superficial wounds to
her stomach and arms.
The news about the remains inthe woods were everywhere, and
(22:43):
when Edna Lillis was watchingthe news on the evening of 17th
of September, a land photo cameon TV.
She immediately recognized herand decided to call the
detectives.
Edna and Elaine have beenpatients of the same hospital
six years earlier and struck afriendship, both confiding in
each other about theirstruggles.
(23:04):
They kept in contact for manyyears after this, until about
five months before Elaine'sdisappearance.
It was at this last meetingwhen Elaine told Edna about the
man she was seeing.
She mentioned he is anarchitect, married, and he has
kids, but most importantly, Shetold her about their shared
(23:25):
fantasy in bondage and the factthat he would inflict cuts on
her stomach.
Edna warned Elaine at that timeand when she had seen the news,
she felt compelled to comeforward with this information.
An important piece ofinformation Edna was able to
share with the police was thefact that she told Elaine to
keep this man's detailssomewhere in a notebook, just in
(23:47):
case.
Elaine then told her she hadall these details of the
relationship stored somewhere.
Obviously, the police knew theyneeded to find these.
And if anything, he could justshare more information about
Elaine, which could help infinding clues to what might have
happened.
But we can deduct by now thathe was definitely a leading
(24:09):
suspect.
So they started to look into allthe evidence and CCTV in hopes
of revealing his identity.
Previously, they have onlychecked two days of CCTV.
Now they would embark inchecking 219 days in hopes of
finding any clues.
This was a mammoth task andtook weeks.
(24:31):
Meanwhile, the investigatorsgot back from the tech team all
Elaine's online activity.
Specifically, her text messagesrecovered from her laptop.
They were able to extractaround 4,000 messages out of
which half-word between Elaineand two phone numbers.
They managed to track down onephone number to where it was
(24:54):
purchased, as well as findingthis number on Elaine's iPhone
under David.
This phone was purchased in 2011alongside with a prepaid SIM
and it was solely used forcommunication with Elaine.
The messages they extractedfurther instilled the
investigation's belief that thiswas indeed the man that Elaine
(25:15):
was talking about.
In these messages, he wasexpressing his need of hurting
Elaine, and also through thesemessages, it was confirmed he
has indeed hurt Elaine in thepast, aligning with what she
told Edna and her father.
It was also found that Elainehas tried to cut communication
several times, but he would comeback again and she was unable
(25:36):
to resist him.
In contrast to Elaine'sfragility, this guy was
manipulative and showed noempathy towards her.
Reading through these messages,you can clearly see what his
intentions are.
His only desire is to satisfyhimself.
Now, you're probably thinking,isn't this the core of how the
(25:57):
relationships between a dom anda sub are?
Where the dominant one, or themaster, would have total control
of the submissive partner,using the latter for their own
desires?
Yes, that would be true, butgenerally there is a consensual
exchange of power between Andthere are very specific rules
set for the benefit of bothparties.
(26:20):
In this case, and readingthrough some of these messages,
combined with the fact thatElaine has indeed tried to break
contact with him, it's clear hewas pushing some boundaries
that Elaine was not ready tobreak.
They were pretty sure at thatpoint they found Elaine's
killer.
They needed to identify him.
Using the text messages, theytried to create a timeline,
(26:43):
which they would then use tocheck CCTV in the building.
Elaine did mention he had a keyto her flat, so surely he must
have visited her.
And they did manage to findwhat they were looking for.
On 23rd of June, theinvestigators did see a man
entering Elaine's building andwaiting for the lift.
Unfortunately, there was noCCTV on the floor Elaine was
(27:06):
living, so they weren't surewhere he went.
But the breakthrough camequickly as only a few days
later, on July 9th, they noticedthe same man entering the
building with Elaine.
He was trying to evade theCCTV, purposely keeping his head
down.
He was then seen entering thebuilding one more time, two days
later, on 11th of July.
(27:27):
Their next step was to try andfind out more about Elaine's
involvement into the BDSM world,which might then bring them to
the killer's identity.
They found several pieces ofevidence from the computer, such
as photos, some letters andfilms, all related to BDSM.
Elaine was an adult and free tonavigate her fantasies.
(27:50):
What was important to the casewere the maps they found for the
woods where she was found, aswell as her usernames for the
websites she was using to meetpeople with the same fetishes.
Looking specifically into theseusernames and her online
presence into the websites, Theinvestigators found out she
might have met her killer asearly as 2007, when she first
(28:12):
started visiting these sites.
So, Detective Wallace, the leadinvestigator, started the long
process of trying to identifyanyone who Elaine talked to on
these websites, as well ashaving a team still looking
through the message exchange.
By 27th of September, 10 dayssince the investigation started,
(28:32):
they went through most of thecontents they found.
and they found something veryinteresting.
In one of the conversationsbetween Elaine and this man, he
was specifically mentioningabout a flying competition he
was in, and he expressed hisdisappointment in coming in
fifth place.
Although this seemed like anincredible lead at that point,
(28:53):
the pilot register and a checkof the competition during the
time the message was sent didn'tbring any good leads.
That was until one of thedetectives had a lightbulb
moment.
He remembered seeing peopleflying model aircraft one Sunday
and wondered, is this what theman was talking about?
(29:13):
They looked into this furtherand using the date from the
messages, they managed to findthe competition taking place
around that time.
They knew he came in fifthplace, which she was upset about
enough to mention it to her,and when checking the event
rankings, the man in fifth placewas called Graham Dyer.
(29:34):
This name immediately rang abell to them as when they were
looking through Elaine'sjournal, they found a phone
number along with the nameGraham.
Could this be it?
Did they find him?
They needed to be sure so theystarted looking into his
background.
They found out he was working asan architect and he lived near
(29:55):
Cabin Tilly.
The phone used to messageElaine was mainly located near
Lower Bagot Street.
Basically, the cell data wasplacing the phone next to this
area.
His home address is also nearthis area.
Also, the shop where the phonewas purchased from is a short
walk from Lower Bagot Street.
They managed to find a photo ofhim from his workplace and when
(30:18):
comparing with the CCTV, therewas a resemblance.
Further checks also revealedthat he was married and had a
child, a daughter, in March2011.
The birth of his daughter wasalso in the text messages.
He has informed Elaine aboutthis.
The detectives were stunned.
They found him.
(30:38):
So, who was Graham Dyer?
He was unremarkable.
Most certainly, everyoneexpected the face of a monster,
whatever that might look like.
But he wasn't it.
He was 5'5", boyish face, andnothing really to make him stand
(31:01):
out of a crowd.
Nothing like the man in thosetexts with Elaine.
Evil comes in all shapes andsizes, and if anything, the most
unremarkable ones will go byunnoticed.
But was this father of two now,living in the affluent suburbs
of Dublin, the monster whokilled a woman and was talking
(31:21):
about stabbing and killinginnocents?
They started by following himaround, laying low for now not
to spook him.
If he was indeed their man,they wouldn't know what he might
be capable of doing.
if he found out he is beingunder suspicions.
Elaine was all over the news.
Surely he must have seen them.
(31:42):
Yet, he was unbothered by it.
He seemed unfazed.
There was nothing out of theordinary that he did whilst he
was being watched.
They needed to have an ironcladcase.
Nothing was to be left tochance.
They got evidence from theNokia phone found in the lake.
Although the phone wasdestroyed, they could salvage
(32:03):
the SIM card.
This phone had only one numbersaved, which was the number from
the MacBook as well.
Basically, both phones werebrought only for the purpose of
communicating with Elaine.
Also, the analysts were able toconfirm, using cell data, that
Ayer's work phone and the othertwo phone numbers used to
communicate with Elaine were atthe same place, same time.
(32:25):
Meaning, there was a strongprobability he had the phones.
What are the chances thatsomeone else is at the same
place and time as him textingElaine.
A third search of the reservoirwas conducted, as they needed to
find the final Nokia phonepurchased.
And how it happened?
The police found it.
Of course, alongside with moresex toys and a ski mask.
(32:49):
Last piece of the puzzle wastrying to prove Elaine had
indeed contact with Dyer.
They needed to prove that heknew her.
Elaine joined the BDSM sites in2007, and by September that
year, they found out she wasconsistently talking with
someone.
Also, the investigators foundout that Dyer's work phone sent
(33:11):
a total of 847 messages toElaine between January 2008 and
December 2009.
And although the contents ofthese messages were lost, how
could he now deny knowingElaine?
But they knew that knowingsomeone or having an online
relationship is not proof enoughthat he killed her.
(33:32):
Luckily, on the last phone theyfound, which was connected to
Dyer, they could extract over260 messages, which would paint
a picture of what happenedthere.
There was a long exchangebetween them, and he would
consistently talk about hisfantasies on taking someone's
life.
On the days before Elaine hasdisappeared, she would push back
(33:56):
on this.
One of these messages reallybroke my heart.
Elaine was saying, and I quote,'Please don't mention killing
for a while until I settle backto life'.
That was sent on the day shedisappeared.
That day, Elaine got anothermessage with the location of
where they were going to me.
(34:16):
She was instructed to head tothe cemetery at 5.30, leave her
iPhone behind and only take herother phone with her, the Nokia.
So, she spent a few hours thatday with her father, and at 5.05
p.m.
that evening, CCTV camerarecorded Elaine leaving her
apartment for the last time.
At the same time, he switchedoff his work phone.
(34:39):
At 5.22, Elaine parked her carat the cemetery, and
coincidentally, his Nokia phonewas in the vicinity at the same
time.
She was instructed through textto go to a footpath, and this
is where she got lost and askeda jogger for directions.
The final text exchange, onceshe was at the foothill,
(34:59):
instructed Elaine to go down tothe shore and wait.
After that, no other exchangesbetween the two founds.
The garda believed Elaine wasdead within an hour from this
exchange.
They suspect while she was atthe shore, he was waiting in his
car.
Then he got her to go into hiscar and drove to the other side
of the woods.
(35:19):
Once they got there, only heknows exactly what happened.
They couldn't determine howmany times Elaine was stabbed
and what were the circumstances,but they believe it all
happened within a three-hourtime frame.
His work phone, which waspreviously switched off, was
back online at 9pm that eveningnext to his house.
(35:41):
By October, they were workinghard on planning his arrest.
They had an overwhelming amountof evidence by that point and
they were ready to move in.
On Thursday 17th of October at7am, the squad was heading to
his house to arrest him.
Detective Sergeant Woods rangthe doorbell and he appeared at
(36:05):
the door in his pyjama bottoms.
He was informed of his arrestin relation to Elaine's murder
and he seemed surprised.
Now with him in custody, theymoved to searching the house as
well as trying to talk with hiswife, hopefully to get the last
pieces of evidence.
They were specifically curiousif the wife knew anything about
(36:26):
it, but she was as shocked asanyone else about his behavior.
Nevertheless, they concludedshe wasn't involved and Dyer
wouldn't see her nor thechildren until the trial.
Their marriage ended that daywhen she found out what he was
arrested for.
His interrogation was a veryinteresting read.
(36:47):
At first, the investigatorstried to hone in on DNA and what
they could find, But after sixhours, he was mostly concerned
on how this will affect him, hiswife and his job.
Not once he expressed anyconcern regarding Elaine.
Obviously, when the phone andCCTV evidence were shown to him
(37:08):
in the second interview, hedenied everything and
specifically, he denied knowingElaine.
Also, by this time, the casewas blowing up in the media and
he really hated that.
He wanted to be perceived in adifferent way.
And now, with all the mediacoverage, he was perceived as a
(37:28):
cold-blooded murderer.
Well, allegedly at that pointin time.
The trial began on 22nd ofJanuary 2015, and the
prosecutors focused on thelitany of evidence they found.
They focused on the textmessages sent between Elaine and
Dyer, many depicting hisobsession with knives and
(37:51):
stabbing, as well as evidencefrom some homemade videos.
In the absence of evidencedetermining the cause of death
of Elaine, the prosecutors hadto present, beyond a reasonable
doubt, through CCTV and textmessages, that Dyer was plotting
and carried out his plan tokill Elaine.
There were also some home moviesfound, and in this instance,
(38:13):
the judge didn't allow anypublic in the court that day to
view these videos.
which was for the best.
The videos were incrediblydamning, showing his obsession
with stabbing and killing.
His lawyer argued that yes,there was a relationship, but
there was no evidence confirminghe has killed Elaine.
They also specifically focusedon Elaine's struggles with her
(38:36):
mental health and her manyhospital admissions, saying that
Elaine could have very welltaken her life.
Which maybe would make sense ifElaine was going through stuff
at that time, But if youremember, she was very excited
about her plans for the upcomingday.
Also, she has specifically askedhim in some of these messages
to stop talking about stabbingand killing.
(38:59):
She was in a differentheadspace at that time.
This was also confirmed by manyof the witnesses.
Yes, Elaine had plenty ofstruggles, but not that day.
Also, in preparation for histrial, he was actually advised
by his team to offer a guiltyplea to manslaughter, but he
(39:19):
absolutely refused.
After 37 days in court, spreadover eight weeks, on 13th of
March 2015, the state restedtheir case.
A week later, on Thursday 19,defense called for another three
witnesses, but nothing relevantwas discussed.
That would bring the end of agrueling trial.
(39:40):
I cannot even imagine howElaine's family must have felt
this whole time, finding out allthe intimate details as well as
how this lunatic was treatedtheir loved one.
The prosecutors, in theirending statements, outlined that
Dyer has exploded Elaine togratify his sexual fantasies.
He lured her out and acted uponthese fantasies, which ended up
(40:05):
with Elaine being murdered.
The defense reminded the jurythat the prosecutors had to
prove that he killed Elaine orintentionally caused her serious
injury.
Despite all this evidenceagainst him, he remained
outwardly cocky and confident,even telling the prison wards
that he plans to celebrate hisacquittal with a steak and wine.
(40:27):
Well, he got to celebrate withthe prison mill as on 27th of
March 2015, he was convicted ofElaine's murder which came with
a life sentence.
This is the tragic story ofElaine O'Hara, a kind soul who
loves her family and friends.
(40:47):
She has shown strength over theyears in dealing with her
struggles and all she wanted wasto form a connection with
someone.
Unfortunately, that someone wasevil.
Thank you for listening totoday's episode and see you next
time for a new one.
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