February 20, 2025 • 31 mins
In March 1993, 27-year-old Annie McCarrick vanished from Dublin, Ireland, leaving behind a mystery that remains unsolved over 30 years later. Originally from New York, she had embraced life in Ireland, but on the day she disappeared, she ran errands, returned home briefly, and was never seen again. Initial reports placed her at a pub that night, but investigators have since walked back those sightings. Her case is now linked to Ireland’s "Vanishing Triangle," a series of unexplained disappearances, and was officially reclassified as a homicide in 2023. What really happened to Annie? Join us as we unravel the eerie details of her case.
*** If you know anything about the disappearance of Annie McCarrick in March of 1993.- or her whereabouts today.- please contact the Garda Station at 016669600 or to reach the anonymous tip line call 1800666111 ***
Sources:
The Star, The Province, Newsday (Nassau Edition), Staten Island Advance, Daily News, Evening Herald, The Independent Wales on Sunday, Sunday Telegraph, The Independent. And The Irish Post
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
The views and opinions expressed in Cold and Missing are exclusively those of the hosts.
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All parties mentioned are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Cold and Missing also contains adult themes and languages.
Listener discretion is advised.
I'm your host, Ali McLaughlin-Sulkowski.
And I'm your co-host, Eli Sulkowski.
And this is Cold and Missing, where we cover cold cases and missing person cases.
(00:34):
Hello everyone and welcome back to Cold and Missing.
I'm Ali.
And I'm Eli.
Welcome back everyone.
Eli's back this week.
He's been pretty busy working on a few things, so he's back with us this week.
We're so excited.
I'm so excited.
Yeah, I'm very excited to be back and I'm always very grateful to be working on anything
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artistic that fills my cup up.
And as always, I just want to say thank you at the top for everyone who took some time
to write a review this week.
It means so much.
We had a really nice one come in through our website, www.coldandmissing.com.
You can review us there, message us there, find our old episodes, quick plug at the top
(01:18):
for the website.
And thank you for rating and reviewing.
I know everyone's busy and has a lot going on.
So just taking the time to do that really means so much.
But with that, I think we should just jump right in.
We are on episode 120 this week.
And we are on a missing person case this week.
So let's get into it.
(01:40):
So just as a bit of a content warning at the top, there is some brief mentions of sexual
assault.
Today we will be covering the missing person case of Annie McCarrick.
And this takes place in March of 1993 in Dublin, Ireland.
But first, a little bit about Annie.
Annie was 27 years old in 1993.
(02:03):
She was born and raised in Long Island, New York.
Annie had visited Ireland on a school trip as a teenager and fell in love with the country.
Her childhood friend said, quote, she loved the food, she loved the people, she loved
the scenery.
She even loved the plants, end quote.
Annie made plans to get back to Ireland as quick as she could.
(02:25):
She attended college in Ireland and in January of 1993, three months before she went missing,
she officially moved there to see if she wanted to make it her home.
She got an apartment with two other women in Sandymount, which is just southeast of
Dublin.
She picked up two waitressing jobs, one at Cafe Java on Leeson Street and the other at
(02:47):
the Courtyard Restaurant in Donnybrook.
She also loved to bake pies and would sell them at local markets.
Annie is very smart.
She's academic and intellectual, kind and caring, thoughtful.
She kept a detailed journal of her day-to-day happenings for years.
However, in the weeks leading up to her disappearance, she had suddenly stopped writing in her journal.
(03:14):
And now a timeline of events.
On Thursday, March 25, 1993, Annie proclaimed that the weekend was starting now after her
shift had ended.
She attempted to collect her wages at that time, but the money wasn't ready yet.
She said she would come back the next day to get it.
On Friday, March 26, 1993, Annie had a full day.
(03:38):
In the morning, she chatted with her roommates.
Both of them were headed home for the weekend and Annie would have the flat to herself.
Her plans for the morning appeared to have been full of errands.
She had planned to go back to her job to pick up her paycheck, and she also dropped off
some pies she had made.
She goes to the bank and then she goes grocery shopping.
(04:01):
Annie was seen on CCTV footage at the bank withdrawing her money.
After the bank, she was headed to Quinsworth Supermarket.
She had plans to host friends for dinner the next evening and her mother was going to arrive
the following Tuesday for a visit.
The receipt from Annie's groceries was time stamped at 1102 a.m.
(04:22):
Shortly after going grocery shopping, Annie made it back to her flat and dropped her groceries
off.
It appears that she started to do some laundry as she filled the sink and was letting some
items soak in it.
She also started to make one of her famous pies.
Annie called her friend in the afternoon to see if she wanted to go walking in the Wicklow
Mountains located in Enniskerry just outside of Dublin.
(04:47):
Her friend couldn't make it, though.
She had hurt her foot and was trying to rest it.
Now from here, it's unclear exactly what happened to Annie that night, but here is
what's reported at the time.
It appears that Annie was undeterred.
Annie boarded the 18 bus in Sandymount.
A witness said they saw Annie get off at Ronalog, but instead of taking the 44 bus which would
(05:11):
have taken her to Enniskerry, which is where the Wicklow Mountains are located where she
had wanted to walk, she boarded the 62 bus that was headed to Westland Row.
Westland Row would have taken her into the city of Dublin, right downtown it looks like.
However, investigators will walk back pretty quickly that she ever headed to Westland Row.
(05:33):
Instead, they say that the last confirmed sighting of Annie was that she was on the
bus headed to Enniskerry.
On Saturday, March 27, the next day, Annie's friends, Hillary and Rita, arrived at her
place for dinner.
Annie had been planning to cook for them, however when they arrived at the flat, all
(05:53):
the lights were out.
No one answered the door.
The friends left confused as to where Annie was.
They started to call around to see if they could find her.
They called Annie's job to see if she was there, but they say that Annie hadn't showed
up for work that afternoon, which was unlike her.
On Sunday, March 28, Annie's roommates arrive back from their weekends out of town.
(06:17):
They get back to the apartment in the evening hours and when they enter the apartment, they
find Annie's groceries still on the table and her laundry is still soaking in the sink.
A pie that she had been making was cooling on the stove and sitting untouched.
It's unclear exactly when that evening, but her roommates call Annie's parents in New
(06:38):
York and then they also call the police or the guardie as they're called in Ireland.
On Tuesday, March 30, so Annie has been missing since Friday, Annie's mother arrives from
New York.
With her is Annie's father who had not originally planned to come to Ireland, but since Annie
was missing, he comes as well and they both hope that Annie will turn up at the airport
(07:02):
to pick them up.
When Annie fails to show up, they know that something is very, very wrong.
Annie's mother files a missing person report that evening.
The guardie gets to work looking for Annie.
They contact her friends and ex-boyfriends to get an understanding of who Annie is and
when they last spoke to her.
On April 7, so Annie has been missing for 12 days, investigators release a composite
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sketch of a man that they want to talk to.
Tips had come in that on the night she disappeared, Annie was at the Johnny Fox Pub to watch a
traditional Irish dance and music show, something called the Hoolie.
The pub is located in Glen Cullen.
To get to Glen Cullen from Enniskerry, Annie would have had to walk about an hour to get
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there, and the night she disappeared, it was also raining.
According to witnesses, Annie wanted to see the Hoolie show, but didn't realize that
there was a cover charge to get into it.
A man in his mid-twenties, about 5'9", with an athletic build, stepped forward to
pay the cover.
He told the bouncer, quote, I'll look after that, end quote.
(08:14):
Annie was also reported talking to a woman in the pub near the end of the night, around
1130 p.m.
However, no one said they saw Annie or the man leave.
Over the years, people have doubted if Annie was ever at the pub, considering that she
would have had to walk around 4 miles, or 6 kilometers, in the rain to get there.
(08:36):
Some think it was someone else who just happened to look like Annie.
The pub is a tourist spot, so it wouldn't have been so out of the ordinary to hear an
American accent there.
However, investigators continue to focus on this area as they believe that this is the
last place that Annie was seen.
On April 10th, so Annie has been missing for 15 days, her parents feel confident that they
(08:59):
will find her alive.
They also hire a private investigator that was recommended to them by the American Embassy.
Annie's parents stress that they trust the guardie, but they want every resource available,
working on the case and looking for their daughter.
Two additional possible sightings of Annie come in from witnesses, but investigators
(09:20):
at this point feel very confident that Johnny Fox's was the last place that Annie was and
focused their search around this area and the Wicklow Mountains.
The guardie also look into if Antonio Angel Martins could be involved with Annie's disappearance.
At this time in 1993, he was Spain's most wanted man for kidnapping, assaulting, and
(09:42):
murdering of three 14-year-old girls in Spain.
Martin was on the run from police there and he had stowed away on a ship that arrived
in Ireland two days before Annie disappeared.
To date, it's never been confirmed if they have officially ruled him out or not.
On the weekend of April 17th, a massive search is conducted with hundreds of volunteers near
(10:06):
Johnny's Pub and in the Wicklow Mountains.
During the search, a denim shirt is found.
However, Annie's roommates don't recognize it as hers.
Detectives talk to patrons in the pub hoping someone will remember Annie, but nobody comes
forward with any additional information.
Near the one-month mark of Annie's disappearance, the guardie announce that they're going to
(10:31):
work with the International Police, Interpol, as they need help tracking down some French
tourists who were at Johnny Fox's the night that Annie vanished.
The group had a video camera with them and were recording the show.
Police are hopeful that the camera has a glimpse of Annie on it and even the man who had paid
(10:52):
for her cover.
Investigators also at this time start to scale back the amount of people working on her case,
though they continue to search bogs in the area for a sign of Annie.
Annie's parents stay in Ireland for months looking for their daughter.
However, as time passes, they have to make the heartbreaking decision to go back to America
(11:13):
where they both worked.
Annie's mom was a school secretary and her father was a special education teacher.
However, they continue to champion Annie's case while in America.
They write to their representatives to ask them for their help in keeping Annie's case
at the forefront of the guardie's mind.
Annie's parents both believe that she never made it to Johnny Fox's.
(11:36):
Her father says, quote, It looks like she was yanked out of her apartment.
A pie she was cooking was just sitting there, end quote.
Over the summer of 1993, various sightings of Annie pop up.
The guardie look into each and every one of them, as well as the family's private investigator.
But no trace of Annie is ever found.
(11:58):
An officer with a guardie tells the local paper, quote, To be brutally honest, these
so-called sightings have turned out to be bullshit, end quote.
Despite these numerous sightings, Annie's bank account has not been accessed since she
vanished and her passport was left at her flat.
And still no trace of her is found.
(12:18):
At the one year anniversary of Annie's disappearance, so this is March of 1994, Annie's parents
fly back to Ireland to drum up media about their daughter's case.
The family offers an additional £100,000 to the reward, bringing the total up to £150,000.
They say that the reward is being offered, no questions asked, if it brings them to Annie.
(12:43):
The reward of £150,000 is only being offered while they're there for a week.
They hope that someone will come forward and claim the money.
They don't want to prosecute anyone.
They just want to find Annie.
Her family, the guardie, and the private eye all agree that the chances of finding Annie
alive are slim.
Over the last year, the guardie had investigated possible sightings of Annie, looked into cults
(13:08):
around Ireland, and continued to search stretches of countryside for Annie, but nothing is found
related to her case.
The week ends and Annie's parents return back to America with the $100,000 reward still
with them.
Nobody came forward with information.
After this, the case goes cold for several years.
(13:29):
In June of 1997, so at this point it's been over four years since Annie vanished, the
guardie excavate a pet cemetery in relation to Annie's case.
They say they got a tip that something was buried here around the time that Annie vanished,
but nothing is found.
In August of 2010, so it's been 17 years since Annie vanished, and the women of Ireland
(13:54):
are on edge.
Larry Murphy is being released from jail.
Murphy is also known as the Beast of Bolting Glass.
Murphy is a convicted rapist, kidnapper, and an attempted murderer.
The woman he was attacking had managed to get away from Murphy when he was interrupted
by unexpected passer-byers that happened to recognize him.
(14:15):
The attack happened in the Wicklow Mountains.
He went to jail in 2001 and served less than 10 years for his crime.
Notably, Murphy refused to talk about Annie's disappearance when asked by investigators.
He also refused to answer questions in six other disappearances of women all around the
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same spot in Ireland.
The spot becomes known as Ireland's Vanishing Triangle.
Of the seven women who vanished, Annie was the first to go missing in 1993.
The last one was in 1998.
Over the years, there have been progress on some of the cases, but several remain unsolved
and are believed to be the work of a serial killer.
(14:59):
Murphy was arrested in 2000.
The guardie mentioned that the attack stopped for good when he went to jail.
In March of 2023, so it's been 30 years since Annie vanished, and the guardie officially
reclassify her case as a homicide, but no additional details are given on why they do
this.
(15:20):
In March of 2024, so 31 years since Annie disappeared, and it's revealed that the
CCTV footage showing Annie at the bank that morning, and what was thought to be the last
confirmed sighting of her on CCTV, was actually captured 11 days before she went missing.
At this point too, investigators have walked back to her last true sighting.
(15:44):
They now say that her last confirmed whereabouts would have been when she dropped off her groceries
at her apartment.
They no longer say Johnny Foxx's is the last place she was seen, and they no longer say
she was on the bus to Ensign's Gary.
But that is all we know about the disappearance of Annie McCarrick.
(16:06):
So if you know anything about the disappearance of Annie McCarrick in March of 1993, or her
whereabouts today, please contact the Irish town guardia station at 01-666-9600.
Or to leave a tip anonymously, you can call 1-800-666-111.
(16:30):
So that is the case of Annie McCarrick.
I'm hesitant to use the word excitement here, but I was just a little excited to hear that
this case takes place in Ireland because we have a large amount of listeners that reside
there.
Hello to our Irish listeners, our people living in Ireland who are listening to us.
(16:54):
Yes, and also my apologies to the people of Ireland.
I worked really hard on my pronunciation of a lot of the places that we talked about in
today's case, but I am sure that I am pronouncing something wrong.
So I do apologize.
I did work very hard.
But I hope that if you are from Ireland or familiar with Ireland that you are at least
(17:19):
knowing what I'm talking about.
While hearing about Annie and knowing that she was a lover of Ireland and Irish culture
and heritage, it just brought me a lot of joy.
Both you and I are Irish as well and we enjoy learning about Irish lore and Irish culture
(17:42):
and heritage as well.
She seemed like someone even now that I would really get along with.
I'm really hoping to find answers here.
Something else that I found just very beautiful about her was the fact that she kept journals,
but immediately found it very, very odd that she stopped writing weeks or days leading
(18:08):
up to her disappearance.
I know that because I'm not myself a regular journaling type person, but you are.
And immediately I knew that that was very odd and something worth taking note of.
Yeah, the journal, that's something I kind of went back and forth with because when I
(18:32):
am really in my journaling habit, I can't go to sleep until I do my daily journal entry.
But there have been times in my life where I just fall out of it.
I go out late one night or something's going on, I don't do it, and then I fall off of
doing it for weeks or months at a time.
So I would be curious what the entries were like leading up to her stopping and just if
(18:55):
those have any details or clues as to maybe why she stopped writing.
Was she just really busy over the next couple days or weeks?
Or was there something else going on?
I do have a question about Annie and her roommates, and I'm wondering if the roommates were already
(19:18):
gone for the weekend when she started her laundry and bringing in the groceries and
starting the pie.
I'm curious to know if anyone was around that morning as well.
So from my understanding, the roommates were not there when she got back from the grocery
(19:38):
store.
It's unclear exactly when she started soaking her clothes.
My impression from all the reporting that I read about that day is that the roommates
came back on Sunday, she vanished on a Friday, and the groceries were on the table still
in the bag, and then there was laundry in the sink.
(19:59):
So to me, it gave the impression that they discovered the laundry there as well.
And this moves right to the end of what you told us in that they know that she was last
seen most likely in her apartment.
So I think this invites an even bigger question into who knew that she was going to be alone
(20:27):
in her home.
And I know you don't know the answer to that, but I think it's a question worth asking.
Yeah, I think one thing that really anchors her at her home is the fact that she called
a friend asking if she wanted to go to the Wicklow Mountains to walk.
And as far as who knows that she was there, it seems like it could have been known amongst
(20:50):
her friends and acquaintances and coworkers.
When I had roommates, I was usually really excited if I had a weekend by myself, and
I usually announce that to people that I was with, like, oh, I'm going to have a great
weekend.
I have the place to myself.
So it wouldn't surprise me if a lot of people knew.
Yeah, it's very easy for me to imagine that when her shift ended, I've said this multiple
(21:14):
times.
I'm sure I've said it earlier this week.
My weekend is officially starting, even if it's on a Wednesday night or a Thursday night
or a Tuesday night.
People usually know when at least people in my immediate vicinity who I'm working with,
customers in the store, those people around will know that it's my weekend and I might
(21:37):
be alone.
I think it's something very possibly that could be overheard if you are making an like
kind of an exciting declarative, an exciting declarative announcement about the fun time
you're going to have.
Totally.
And her working, you know, as a waitress, as a server, you know, patrons in and out
(21:59):
of the restaurant, delivery people, like there's so many ears.
So yeah, it it makes complete sense to me that that could happen in this case that the
wrong person overheard and got the information.
Learning that she most likely did not get on the bus makes the scene that they find
with her not being there, but left in the middle of tasks being done, makes so much
(22:24):
more sense to me.
I'm so glad that, you know, you had the narrative and could kind of bring us to that conclusion
that this is the spot that she was last seen in and this is where she was maybe pulled
from or was the last place that she left.
The guardie really hooked on to this idea that she was going to Innescarri, the Wicklow
(22:48):
Mountains to walk because she called a friend asking if she wanted to go.
So that did seem like what she wanted to do that afternoon.
And there were witnesses that say they saw her on a bus.
A bus driver says he saw her get on going on the bus that was headed like straight into
downtown Dublin, that she was nervous and her hands were shaking.
(23:12):
But then they kind of retrace that because, you know, she's got to get to Innescarri if
she's going to end up at Johnny Fox's.
So the whole second half of the day, kind of after, you know, 11 or whatever that exact
timing of that phone call happens, for a while it seemed like it was really in stone.
Like it's reported in the papers again and again, she was last seen on the bus or she
(23:35):
was last seen at Johnny Fox's.
So I think that really muddled things and got people focused in an area that, of course,
needed to be searched, should be searched.
But maybe that wasn't where the resources needed to be in those first, you know, weeks
after her disappearance.
(23:55):
I 100% agree.
I think that, you know, in cases like this, you're always grasping at straws when a new
lead comes in.
But unfortunately, we now know that that was not the focal point.
And that's not where resources should have been allocated.
But I will say that, you know, we can talk about her parents later and the incredible
(24:19):
job they did champion, championing her to come home.
The Gardi did an incredible job with their search efforts.
I am not super familiar with the terrain in Ireland and the area in which she was staying.
But I know it's not the same as here in America.
(24:40):
To me, it sounded like vast efforts were that none of them were spared, that everyone did
everything that they could.
Yeah, the terrain specifically where they were focusing, you know, the Wicklow Mountains
and around Johnny Fox's is very mountainous.
It was a very tough search and hundreds of volunteers came out to help search for Annie,
(25:05):
which is just like a beautiful testament to the community there that everyone got together
to walk in really rugged, tough conditions to look for somebody that they didn't know.
Now I know I very briefly brought up Annie's parents, but a question I did have about them
was, were they always planning to come to Ireland that weekend?
(25:31):
So her mother was always coming on Tuesday, March 30th.
So she went missing on Friday.
Her mother had plans to come in on Tuesday.
That was planned.
However, when her roommates called her parents and said, you know, we can't find her, it
seems like she hasn't been here for a few days.
That's when her father decides to join as well.
(25:54):
And when they get to the airport, you know, they're kind of holding on to a hope that
Annie's going to turn up.
She knows she just spent a weekend away, needed to decompress, and she's going to turn up
to pick them up from the airport.
But she's not there and they know something is very, very wrong at that point.
For this case, for Annie's case, there are a lot of possibilities and a lot of people
(26:15):
when you consider the area of both the pub and the mountains.
I think there's a lot of room to speculate here.
And my mind did begin to kind of run, run awry and speculate all of the different possibilities
(26:37):
of how Annie's disappearance happened until you introduced us to Larry Murphy at the very
end.
It sounded like he covered a lot of ground in committing his crimes.
And while I hate to point to him being the most probable suspect, it really seems like
(27:01):
it's definitely a possibility that he had something to do with her disappearance.
Yeah, Larry Murphy.
So he has only been convicted of kidnapping, assaulting and attempted murder on one person.
The other cases, along with Annie's, that are all attributed to the Vanishing Triangle,
(27:24):
Ireland's Vanishing Triangle, some have been solved, but others have not been solved.
Most of them actually remain unsolved.
So with Murphy, I think one of the things that stuck out most to me was just how it
was almost like an offhanded comment that was made.
When the guardie mentioned that the attacks stopped for good once he went to jail.
(27:46):
And when you look at the timeline of all the attacks, there are sometimes months, sometimes
years in between.
But when he went to prison, they stopped for good.
Well, now that this case is out there, I am very interested in doing my own more in-depth
research.
Because while a lot of time has passed, I don't think enough time has passed where this
(28:12):
can't be solved or answers won't be uncovered.
I think there's a lot of possibility here that in some capacity we could bring her home
or maybe in some capacity, some justice can be had for the family.
Those parents, her parents did what feels like everything.
(28:36):
And I can't imagine having to leave where my baby is, probably.
I can't imagine the inner turmoil and pain that these folks had to go through.
So learning that they did everything they could brings my heart some peace.
(28:58):
Yeah, Annie's parents were always very dedicated to her case.
And her father has passed away, but her mother is still alive and deeply wants to know what
happened to Annie and to know where she is.
And something that she's mentioned, she really wants is just a place to go visit her.
She wants a grave site to visit for Annie.
(29:21):
So I'm very hopeful that in this case, we will get that for Annie's family.
They'll be able to bring her home and put her to rest where they know where she is.
Ireland is a small country.
So to me, it feels like there is a possibility of finding her still.
There's a lot of places still in Ireland.
(29:44):
There's a lot of bogs which are really difficult to search.
Overall, I really hope that Annie gets to be put to rest by her family someday.
But again, if you know anything about the disappearance of Annie McCarrick in March
of 1993, please call the Irish town Garda station at 016669600 or to remain anonymous,
(30:12):
call 1-800-666-111.
And we will have pictures of Annie on our Instagram at Cold and Missing.
We'll also have a clip of the footage from the CCTV or still from the CCTV footage at
the bank.
Again, it was revealed just a few years ago that this was very likely not taking the day
(30:33):
she disappeared, but several days beforehand.
So a lot of muddling in the timeline on this case.
But all of that will be on our Instagram at Cold and Missing.
And again, if we ever need to take a break, or if we have an unexpected week off, we will
always put the announcement on our Instagram.
So keep up with us there.
(30:54):
And as I said at the beginning, thank you so much to everyone who's rated and reviewed
us.
It means so much.
If you have a little time this week, if you could do that, leaving review helps others
find this podcast and learn about these cases.
So thank you if you have.
Thank you if you've thought about it.
And thank you for doing it in the future.
And also, as mentioned at the top, our website www.coldandmissing.com.
(31:15):
You can contact with us there.
You can leave us a review, find all our old episodes, and the official transcripts are
also there.
So if you or someone you love is hard of hearing, you can follow along there.
But that is all I have.
Thank you so much to listening to Cold and Missing.
I'm your host, Ali.
And I'm your co-host, Eli.
Have a good week and stay safe, y'all.
Stay safe, y'all.
The views and opinions expressed in Cold and Missing are exclusively those of the hosts.
(00:13):
All parties mentioned are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Cold and Missing also contains adult themes and languages.
Listener discretion is advised.
I'm your host, Ali McLaughlin-Sulkowski.
And I'm your co-host, Eli Sulkowski.
And this is Cold and Missing, where we cover cold cases and missing person cases.
(00:34):
Hello everyone and welcome back to Cold and Missing.
I'm Ali.
And I'm Eli.
Welcome back everyone.
Eli's back this week.
He's been pretty busy working on a few things, so he's back with us this week.
We're so excited.
I'm so excited.
Yeah, I'm very excited to be back and I'm always very grateful to be working on anything
(00:55):
artistic that fills my cup up.
And as always, I just want to say thank you at the top for everyone who took some time
to write a review this week.
It means so much.
We had a really nice one come in through our website, www.coldandmissing.com.
You can review us there, message us there, find our old episodes, quick plug at the top
(01:18):
for the website.
And thank you for rating and reviewing.
I know everyone's busy and has a lot going on.
So just taking the time to do that really means so much.
But with that, I think we should just jump right in.
We are on episode 120 this week.
And we are on a missing person case this week.
So let's get into it.
(01:40):
So just as a bit of a content warning at the top, there is some brief mentions of sexual
assault.
Today we will be covering the missing person case of Annie McCarrick.
And this takes place in March of 1993 in Dublin, Ireland.
But first, a little bit about Annie.
Annie was 27 years old in 1993.
(02:03):
She was born and raised in Long Island, New York.
Annie had visited Ireland on a school trip as a teenager and fell in love with the country.
Her childhood friend said, quote, she loved the food, she loved the people, she loved
the scenery.
She even loved the plants, end quote.
Annie made plans to get back to Ireland as quick as she could.
(02:25):
She attended college in Ireland and in January of 1993, three months before she went missing,
she officially moved there to see if she wanted to make it her home.
She got an apartment with two other women in Sandymount, which is just southeast of
Dublin.
She picked up two waitressing jobs, one at Cafe Java on Leeson Street and the other at
(02:47):
the Courtyard Restaurant in Donnybrook.
She also loved to bake pies and would sell them at local markets.
Annie is very smart.
She's academic and intellectual, kind and caring, thoughtful.
She kept a detailed journal of her day-to-day happenings for years.
However, in the weeks leading up to her disappearance, she had suddenly stopped writing in her journal.
(03:14):
And now a timeline of events.
On Thursday, March 25, 1993, Annie proclaimed that the weekend was starting now after her
shift had ended.
She attempted to collect her wages at that time, but the money wasn't ready yet.
She said she would come back the next day to get it.
On Friday, March 26, 1993, Annie had a full day.
(03:38):
In the morning, she chatted with her roommates.
Both of them were headed home for the weekend and Annie would have the flat to herself.
Her plans for the morning appeared to have been full of errands.
She had planned to go back to her job to pick up her paycheck, and she also dropped off
some pies she had made.
She goes to the bank and then she goes grocery shopping.
(04:01):
Annie was seen on CCTV footage at the bank withdrawing her money.
After the bank, she was headed to Quinsworth Supermarket.
She had plans to host friends for dinner the next evening and her mother was going to arrive
the following Tuesday for a visit.
The receipt from Annie's groceries was time stamped at 1102 a.m.
(04:22):
Shortly after going grocery shopping, Annie made it back to her flat and dropped her groceries
off.
It appears that she started to do some laundry as she filled the sink and was letting some
items soak in it.
She also started to make one of her famous pies.
Annie called her friend in the afternoon to see if she wanted to go walking in the Wicklow
Mountains located in Enniskerry just outside of Dublin.
(04:47):
Her friend couldn't make it, though.
She had hurt her foot and was trying to rest it.
Now from here, it's unclear exactly what happened to Annie that night, but here is
what's reported at the time.
It appears that Annie was undeterred.
Annie boarded the 18 bus in Sandymount.
A witness said they saw Annie get off at Ronalog, but instead of taking the 44 bus which would
(05:11):
have taken her to Enniskerry, which is where the Wicklow Mountains are located where she
had wanted to walk, she boarded the 62 bus that was headed to Westland Row.
Westland Row would have taken her into the city of Dublin, right downtown it looks like.
However, investigators will walk back pretty quickly that she ever headed to Westland Row.
(05:33):
Instead, they say that the last confirmed sighting of Annie was that she was on the
bus headed to Enniskerry.
On Saturday, March 27, the next day, Annie's friends, Hillary and Rita, arrived at her
place for dinner.
Annie had been planning to cook for them, however when they arrived at the flat, all
(05:53):
the lights were out.
No one answered the door.
The friends left confused as to where Annie was.
They started to call around to see if they could find her.
They called Annie's job to see if she was there, but they say that Annie hadn't showed
up for work that afternoon, which was unlike her.
On Sunday, March 28, Annie's roommates arrive back from their weekends out of town.
(06:17):
They get back to the apartment in the evening hours and when they enter the apartment, they
find Annie's groceries still on the table and her laundry is still soaking in the sink.
A pie that she had been making was cooling on the stove and sitting untouched.
It's unclear exactly when that evening, but her roommates call Annie's parents in New
(06:38):
York and then they also call the police or the guardie as they're called in Ireland.
On Tuesday, March 30, so Annie has been missing since Friday, Annie's mother arrives from
New York.
With her is Annie's father who had not originally planned to come to Ireland, but since Annie
was missing, he comes as well and they both hope that Annie will turn up at the airport
(07:02):
to pick them up.
When Annie fails to show up, they know that something is very, very wrong.
Annie's mother files a missing person report that evening.
The guardie gets to work looking for Annie.
They contact her friends and ex-boyfriends to get an understanding of who Annie is and
when they last spoke to her.
On April 7, so Annie has been missing for 12 days, investigators release a composite
(07:27):
sketch of a man that they want to talk to.
Tips had come in that on the night she disappeared, Annie was at the Johnny Fox Pub to watch a
traditional Irish dance and music show, something called the Hoolie.
The pub is located in Glen Cullen.
To get to Glen Cullen from Enniskerry, Annie would have had to walk about an hour to get
(07:51):
there, and the night she disappeared, it was also raining.
According to witnesses, Annie wanted to see the Hoolie show, but didn't realize that
there was a cover charge to get into it.
A man in his mid-twenties, about 5'9", with an athletic build, stepped forward to
pay the cover.
He told the bouncer, quote, I'll look after that, end quote.
(08:14):
Annie was also reported talking to a woman in the pub near the end of the night, around
1130 p.m.
However, no one said they saw Annie or the man leave.
Over the years, people have doubted if Annie was ever at the pub, considering that she
would have had to walk around 4 miles, or 6 kilometers, in the rain to get there.
(08:36):
Some think it was someone else who just happened to look like Annie.
The pub is a tourist spot, so it wouldn't have been so out of the ordinary to hear an
American accent there.
However, investigators continue to focus on this area as they believe that this is the
last place that Annie was seen.
On April 10th, so Annie has been missing for 15 days, her parents feel confident that they
(08:59):
will find her alive.
They also hire a private investigator that was recommended to them by the American Embassy.
Annie's parents stress that they trust the guardie, but they want every resource available,
working on the case and looking for their daughter.
Two additional possible sightings of Annie come in from witnesses, but investigators
(09:20):
at this point feel very confident that Johnny Fox's was the last place that Annie was and
focused their search around this area and the Wicklow Mountains.
The guardie also look into if Antonio Angel Martins could be involved with Annie's disappearance.
At this time in 1993, he was Spain's most wanted man for kidnapping, assaulting, and
(09:42):
murdering of three 14-year-old girls in Spain.
Martin was on the run from police there and he had stowed away on a ship that arrived
in Ireland two days before Annie disappeared.
To date, it's never been confirmed if they have officially ruled him out or not.
On the weekend of April 17th, a massive search is conducted with hundreds of volunteers near
(10:06):
Johnny's Pub and in the Wicklow Mountains.
During the search, a denim shirt is found.
However, Annie's roommates don't recognize it as hers.
Detectives talk to patrons in the pub hoping someone will remember Annie, but nobody comes
forward with any additional information.
Near the one-month mark of Annie's disappearance, the guardie announce that they're going to
(10:31):
work with the International Police, Interpol, as they need help tracking down some French
tourists who were at Johnny Fox's the night that Annie vanished.
The group had a video camera with them and were recording the show.
Police are hopeful that the camera has a glimpse of Annie on it and even the man who had paid
(10:52):
for her cover.
Investigators also at this time start to scale back the amount of people working on her case,
though they continue to search bogs in the area for a sign of Annie.
Annie's parents stay in Ireland for months looking for their daughter.
However, as time passes, they have to make the heartbreaking decision to go back to America
(11:13):
where they both worked.
Annie's mom was a school secretary and her father was a special education teacher.
However, they continue to champion Annie's case while in America.
They write to their representatives to ask them for their help in keeping Annie's case
at the forefront of the guardie's mind.
Annie's parents both believe that she never made it to Johnny Fox's.
(11:36):
Her father says, quote, It looks like she was yanked out of her apartment.
A pie she was cooking was just sitting there, end quote.
Over the summer of 1993, various sightings of Annie pop up.
The guardie look into each and every one of them, as well as the family's private investigator.
But no trace of Annie is ever found.
(11:58):
An officer with a guardie tells the local paper, quote, To be brutally honest, these
so-called sightings have turned out to be bullshit, end quote.
Despite these numerous sightings, Annie's bank account has not been accessed since she
vanished and her passport was left at her flat.
And still no trace of her is found.
(12:18):
At the one year anniversary of Annie's disappearance, so this is March of 1994, Annie's parents
fly back to Ireland to drum up media about their daughter's case.
The family offers an additional £100,000 to the reward, bringing the total up to £150,000.
They say that the reward is being offered, no questions asked, if it brings them to Annie.
(12:43):
The reward of £150,000 is only being offered while they're there for a week.
They hope that someone will come forward and claim the money.
They don't want to prosecute anyone.
They just want to find Annie.
Her family, the guardie, and the private eye all agree that the chances of finding Annie
alive are slim.
Over the last year, the guardie had investigated possible sightings of Annie, looked into cults
(13:08):
around Ireland, and continued to search stretches of countryside for Annie, but nothing is found
related to her case.
The week ends and Annie's parents return back to America with the $100,000 reward still
with them.
Nobody came forward with information.
After this, the case goes cold for several years.
(13:29):
In June of 1997, so at this point it's been over four years since Annie vanished, the
guardie excavate a pet cemetery in relation to Annie's case.
They say they got a tip that something was buried here around the time that Annie vanished,
but nothing is found.
In August of 2010, so it's been 17 years since Annie vanished, and the women of Ireland
(13:54):
are on edge.
Larry Murphy is being released from jail.
Murphy is also known as the Beast of Bolting Glass.
Murphy is a convicted rapist, kidnapper, and an attempted murderer.
The woman he was attacking had managed to get away from Murphy when he was interrupted
by unexpected passer-byers that happened to recognize him.
(14:15):
The attack happened in the Wicklow Mountains.
He went to jail in 2001 and served less than 10 years for his crime.
Notably, Murphy refused to talk about Annie's disappearance when asked by investigators.
He also refused to answer questions in six other disappearances of women all around the
(14:36):
same spot in Ireland.
The spot becomes known as Ireland's Vanishing Triangle.
Of the seven women who vanished, Annie was the first to go missing in 1993.
The last one was in 1998.
Over the years, there have been progress on some of the cases, but several remain unsolved
and are believed to be the work of a serial killer.
(14:59):
Murphy was arrested in 2000.
The guardie mentioned that the attack stopped for good when he went to jail.
In March of 2023, so it's been 30 years since Annie vanished, and the guardie officially
reclassify her case as a homicide, but no additional details are given on why they do
this.
(15:20):
In March of 2024, so 31 years since Annie disappeared, and it's revealed that the
CCTV footage showing Annie at the bank that morning, and what was thought to be the last
confirmed sighting of her on CCTV, was actually captured 11 days before she went missing.
At this point too, investigators have walked back to her last true sighting.
(15:44):
They now say that her last confirmed whereabouts would have been when she dropped off her groceries
at her apartment.
They no longer say Johnny Foxx's is the last place she was seen, and they no longer say
she was on the bus to Ensign's Gary.
But that is all we know about the disappearance of Annie McCarrick.
(16:06):
So if you know anything about the disappearance of Annie McCarrick in March of 1993, or her
whereabouts today, please contact the Irish town guardia station at 01-666-9600.
Or to leave a tip anonymously, you can call 1-800-666-111.
(16:30):
So that is the case of Annie McCarrick.
I'm hesitant to use the word excitement here, but I was just a little excited to hear that
this case takes place in Ireland because we have a large amount of listeners that reside
there.
Hello to our Irish listeners, our people living in Ireland who are listening to us.
(16:54):
Yes, and also my apologies to the people of Ireland.
I worked really hard on my pronunciation of a lot of the places that we talked about in
today's case, but I am sure that I am pronouncing something wrong.
So I do apologize.
I did work very hard.
But I hope that if you are from Ireland or familiar with Ireland that you are at least
(17:19):
knowing what I'm talking about.
While hearing about Annie and knowing that she was a lover of Ireland and Irish culture
and heritage, it just brought me a lot of joy.
Both you and I are Irish as well and we enjoy learning about Irish lore and Irish culture
(17:42):
and heritage as well.
She seemed like someone even now that I would really get along with.
I'm really hoping to find answers here.
Something else that I found just very beautiful about her was the fact that she kept journals,
but immediately found it very, very odd that she stopped writing weeks or days leading
(18:08):
up to her disappearance.
I know that because I'm not myself a regular journaling type person, but you are.
And immediately I knew that that was very odd and something worth taking note of.
Yeah, the journal, that's something I kind of went back and forth with because when I
(18:32):
am really in my journaling habit, I can't go to sleep until I do my daily journal entry.
But there have been times in my life where I just fall out of it.
I go out late one night or something's going on, I don't do it, and then I fall off of
doing it for weeks or months at a time.
So I would be curious what the entries were like leading up to her stopping and just if
(18:55):
those have any details or clues as to maybe why she stopped writing.
Was she just really busy over the next couple days or weeks?
Or was there something else going on?
I do have a question about Annie and her roommates, and I'm wondering if the roommates were already
(19:18):
gone for the weekend when she started her laundry and bringing in the groceries and
starting the pie.
I'm curious to know if anyone was around that morning as well.
So from my understanding, the roommates were not there when she got back from the grocery
(19:38):
store.
It's unclear exactly when she started soaking her clothes.
My impression from all the reporting that I read about that day is that the roommates
came back on Sunday, she vanished on a Friday, and the groceries were on the table still
in the bag, and then there was laundry in the sink.
(19:59):
So to me, it gave the impression that they discovered the laundry there as well.
And this moves right to the end of what you told us in that they know that she was last
seen most likely in her apartment.
So I think this invites an even bigger question into who knew that she was going to be alone
(20:27):
in her home.
And I know you don't know the answer to that, but I think it's a question worth asking.
Yeah, I think one thing that really anchors her at her home is the fact that she called
a friend asking if she wanted to go to the Wicklow Mountains to walk.
And as far as who knows that she was there, it seems like it could have been known amongst
(20:50):
her friends and acquaintances and coworkers.
When I had roommates, I was usually really excited if I had a weekend by myself, and
I usually announce that to people that I was with, like, oh, I'm going to have a great
weekend.
I have the place to myself.
So it wouldn't surprise me if a lot of people knew.
Yeah, it's very easy for me to imagine that when her shift ended, I've said this multiple
(21:14):
times.
I'm sure I've said it earlier this week.
My weekend is officially starting, even if it's on a Wednesday night or a Thursday night
or a Tuesday night.
People usually know when at least people in my immediate vicinity who I'm working with,
customers in the store, those people around will know that it's my weekend and I might
(21:37):
be alone.
I think it's something very possibly that could be overheard if you are making an like
kind of an exciting declarative, an exciting declarative announcement about the fun time
you're going to have.
Totally.
And her working, you know, as a waitress, as a server, you know, patrons in and out
(21:59):
of the restaurant, delivery people, like there's so many ears.
So yeah, it it makes complete sense to me that that could happen in this case that the
wrong person overheard and got the information.
Learning that she most likely did not get on the bus makes the scene that they find
with her not being there, but left in the middle of tasks being done, makes so much
(22:24):
more sense to me.
I'm so glad that, you know, you had the narrative and could kind of bring us to that conclusion
that this is the spot that she was last seen in and this is where she was maybe pulled
from or was the last place that she left.
The guardie really hooked on to this idea that she was going to Innescarri, the Wicklow
(22:48):
Mountains to walk because she called a friend asking if she wanted to go.
So that did seem like what she wanted to do that afternoon.
And there were witnesses that say they saw her on a bus.
A bus driver says he saw her get on going on the bus that was headed like straight into
downtown Dublin, that she was nervous and her hands were shaking.
(23:12):
But then they kind of retrace that because, you know, she's got to get to Innescarri if
she's going to end up at Johnny Fox's.
So the whole second half of the day, kind of after, you know, 11 or whatever that exact
timing of that phone call happens, for a while it seemed like it was really in stone.
Like it's reported in the papers again and again, she was last seen on the bus or she
(23:35):
was last seen at Johnny Fox's.
So I think that really muddled things and got people focused in an area that, of course,
needed to be searched, should be searched.
But maybe that wasn't where the resources needed to be in those first, you know, weeks
after her disappearance.
(23:55):
I 100% agree.
I think that, you know, in cases like this, you're always grasping at straws when a new
lead comes in.
But unfortunately, we now know that that was not the focal point.
And that's not where resources should have been allocated.
But I will say that, you know, we can talk about her parents later and the incredible
(24:19):
job they did champion, championing her to come home.
The Gardi did an incredible job with their search efforts.
I am not super familiar with the terrain in Ireland and the area in which she was staying.
But I know it's not the same as here in America.
(24:40):
To me, it sounded like vast efforts were that none of them were spared, that everyone did
everything that they could.
Yeah, the terrain specifically where they were focusing, you know, the Wicklow Mountains
and around Johnny Fox's is very mountainous.
It was a very tough search and hundreds of volunteers came out to help search for Annie,
(25:05):
which is just like a beautiful testament to the community there that everyone got together
to walk in really rugged, tough conditions to look for somebody that they didn't know.
Now I know I very briefly brought up Annie's parents, but a question I did have about them
was, were they always planning to come to Ireland that weekend?
(25:31):
So her mother was always coming on Tuesday, March 30th.
So she went missing on Friday.
Her mother had plans to come in on Tuesday.
That was planned.
However, when her roommates called her parents and said, you know, we can't find her, it
seems like she hasn't been here for a few days.
That's when her father decides to join as well.
(25:54):
And when they get to the airport, you know, they're kind of holding on to a hope that
Annie's going to turn up.
She knows she just spent a weekend away, needed to decompress, and she's going to turn up
to pick them up from the airport.
But she's not there and they know something is very, very wrong at that point.
For this case, for Annie's case, there are a lot of possibilities and a lot of people
(26:15):
when you consider the area of both the pub and the mountains.
I think there's a lot of room to speculate here.
And my mind did begin to kind of run, run awry and speculate all of the different possibilities
(26:37):
of how Annie's disappearance happened until you introduced us to Larry Murphy at the very
end.
It sounded like he covered a lot of ground in committing his crimes.
And while I hate to point to him being the most probable suspect, it really seems like
(27:01):
it's definitely a possibility that he had something to do with her disappearance.
Yeah, Larry Murphy.
So he has only been convicted of kidnapping, assaulting and attempted murder on one person.
The other cases, along with Annie's, that are all attributed to the Vanishing Triangle,
(27:24):
Ireland's Vanishing Triangle, some have been solved, but others have not been solved.
Most of them actually remain unsolved.
So with Murphy, I think one of the things that stuck out most to me was just how it
was almost like an offhanded comment that was made.
When the guardie mentioned that the attacks stopped for good once he went to jail.
(27:46):
And when you look at the timeline of all the attacks, there are sometimes months, sometimes
years in between.
But when he went to prison, they stopped for good.
Well, now that this case is out there, I am very interested in doing my own more in-depth
research.
Because while a lot of time has passed, I don't think enough time has passed where this
(28:12):
can't be solved or answers won't be uncovered.
I think there's a lot of possibility here that in some capacity we could bring her home
or maybe in some capacity, some justice can be had for the family.
Those parents, her parents did what feels like everything.
(28:36):
And I can't imagine having to leave where my baby is, probably.
I can't imagine the inner turmoil and pain that these folks had to go through.
So learning that they did everything they could brings my heart some peace.
(28:58):
Yeah, Annie's parents were always very dedicated to her case.
And her father has passed away, but her mother is still alive and deeply wants to know what
happened to Annie and to know where she is.
And something that she's mentioned, she really wants is just a place to go visit her.
She wants a grave site to visit for Annie.
(29:21):
So I'm very hopeful that in this case, we will get that for Annie's family.
They'll be able to bring her home and put her to rest where they know where she is.
Ireland is a small country.
So to me, it feels like there is a possibility of finding her still.
There's a lot of places still in Ireland.
(29:44):
There's a lot of bogs which are really difficult to search.
Overall, I really hope that Annie gets to be put to rest by her family someday.
But again, if you know anything about the disappearance of Annie McCarrick in March
of 1993, please call the Irish town Garda station at 016669600 or to remain anonymous,
(30:12):
call 1-800-666-111.
And we will have pictures of Annie on our Instagram at Cold and Missing.
We'll also have a clip of the footage from the CCTV or still from the CCTV footage at
the bank.
Again, it was revealed just a few years ago that this was very likely not taking the day
(30:33):
she disappeared, but several days beforehand.
So a lot of muddling in the timeline on this case.
But all of that will be on our Instagram at Cold and Missing.
And again, if we ever need to take a break, or if we have an unexpected week off, we will
always put the announcement on our Instagram.
So keep up with us there.
(30:54):
And as I said at the beginning, thank you so much to everyone who's rated and reviewed
us.
It means so much.
If you have a little time this week, if you could do that, leaving review helps others
find this podcast and learn about these cases.
So thank you if you have.
Thank you if you've thought about it.
And thank you for doing it in the future.
And also, as mentioned at the top, our website www.coldandmissing.com.
(31:15):
You can contact with us there.
You can leave us a review, find all our old episodes, and the official transcripts are
also there.
So if you or someone you love is hard of hearing, you can follow along there.
But that is all I have.
Thank you so much to listening to Cold and Missing.
I'm your host, Ali.
And I'm your co-host, Eli.
Have a good week and stay safe, y'all.
Stay safe, y'all.
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