181. Amy Fitzpatrick: The Space Between Goodnight and Gone - Part 1 of 3 - Reverie True Crime

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
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(00:25):
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Speaker 2 (00:40):
Hello, and welcome to Revere True Crime. I'm your host page.
Today's episode is part one of two where we will
comb through the case of Amy Fitzpatrick, who went missing
on the sun kissed coast of Mihas we will learn

(01:02):
all about the first year of Amy's disappearance and how
it began to unfold. In Part two, things begin to
speed up. Information starts to spill from different directions, bizarre
and questionable acts, and even more startling events occurred that

(01:23):
I did not see coming when digging into this case,
such as a person very close to Amy being killed.
Something happened the night that Amy Fitzpatrick was walking home
as she normally did from her friend's house that would
eventually rip apart of family and become an unsolved mystery

(01:45):
that still haunts two countries nearly twenty years later. What
followed was confusion, heartbreak, anger and missed opportunities. When a
fifteen year old girl vanishes, we owe it to her
to keep asking questions, keep the pressure on, and keep searching.

(02:10):
This is part one of Amy Fitzpatrick's story, and it's
time we talk about what really happened. Get ready for
a deep dive. Let's get into it. Amy Loise Fitzpatrick
was born on February seventh, nineteen ninety two, in Dublin, Ireland.

(02:33):
She was the kind of girl you'd notice in a crowd.
She was vibrant, funny, with a mischievous streak that made
her unforgettable. From a young age. Amy had a spark.
She was shy and quiet if she didn't know you,
but she also had an outspoken side. She was sharp

(02:54):
and fiercely protective of the people she loved. She grew
up in Kola, a working class suburb on the north
side of Dublin, with her brother Dean and their parents,
Audrey and Christopher. Amy's childhood was not always easy. There
were tensions at home, and when her parents separated, it

(03:17):
added a lot of instability to what was already a
complicated family dynamic. In the early two thousands, Audrey began
a new relationship with a man named Dave Mahon. Eventually, Audrey, Dave, Amy,
and Dean moved to Spain to start fresh on the

(03:39):
Costa del Sol, a region dotted with Irish and British expats.
Chasing the promise of better weather, cheaper living, and a
different pace of life, they settled in Riviera del Sole,
near the coastal town of Mihas. Audrey and Dave initially

(04:00):
opened up an Irish pub and a tourist area, but
Dave would later become a real estate agent. On the surface,
it looked like a dream, but life wasn't simple behind
closed doors. Audrey and Dave told Amy and Dean that
they were going on a vacation to Spain, hiding the

(04:24):
truth that they were actually moving there. Amy never fully
adjusted to the move. She missed her dad Christopher very
much because they had a great relationship. She longed for
her old friends and the familiarity of Ireland. She bumped

(04:44):
heads often with her mother and stepfather. She desperately wanted
to go back home. By the time she was fifteen,
Amy had stopped going to school. She was homeschooled, though
some reports suggest that her education was inconsistent at best.

(05:06):
Her days were often spent with friends, especially a thirteen
year old girl named Ashley Rose, who lived just minutes
away in the Costa del Sole resort of Kalajunda near
fuen Hirola. Amy had a tight social circle of teenage friends, who,
like her, were living a sort of in between existence,

(05:30):
expats trying to belong, drifting in the limbo between their
pasts and whatever their parents hoped their futures would be.
She was described as street wise, smart beyond her years,
a girl who could hold her own in most situations,

(05:50):
but who still carried the weight of being a kid
forced to grow up too fast. She confided in friends
that things at home were difficult, that she didn't feel safe,
that she hated the man that her mother was with.
Ashley even told her mom, Debbie, about Amy's situation and

(06:14):
how she was homesick for Ireland. Debbie said quote she
desperately wanted to go back to Ireland. She'd missed her
natural father and she had rode with her mom about
a trip they were due to make back to Ireland
on Boxing Day that got canceled. Amy did confide in

(06:37):
Ashley that she found life in Spain a struggle, maybe
more than she did to her own mom. I know
she'd been bullied at school, but the trip back to
Ireland had been rearranged for the New Year, and she
was happier because of it. End quote, New Year's Eve
came and went. For Amy Fitzpatrick, it was it was

(07:00):
just another night spent in the company of her best friend, Ashley.
They had become inseparable, two teenagers figuring out the expat
life in a foreign country, bound together by boredom, loyalty,
and the kind of fierce friendship only teenage girls can understand.

(07:22):
Amy had been at Ashley's home for most of the
New Year's holiday. She'd even spent the night before and
helped babysit Ashley's little brother, Jake. The two were said
to be hanging out, playing games and maybe talking about
boys or dreaming of Ireland. Amy did not want to

(07:43):
go back to her own house. It wasn't unusual. She
often found excuses to stay away from home, where tensions
were rising with her mother's partner, Dave. Amy had confided
in multiple friends that she did not trust him, that
she did not feel safe around him, She was scared

(08:05):
of him. When the clock struck midnight, Amy called her
mother to say Happy New Year and good night. She
made no mention of anything being wrong. Around ten minutes
after ten pm on January first, two thousand and eight,
she left Ashley's. They waved each other goodbye, and Amy

(08:28):
began the short walk home. It was a ten to
fifteen minute walk to her house. At most. She took
a quiet residential route that was dimly lit, a path
she'd taken many times before. Amy Fitzpatrick vanished somewhere in
that short stretch of suburban street at least a lot

(08:51):
of people believe so. The next morning, when she had
not returned, there was confusion. Audrey and Dave said they
weren't immediately alarmed. Amy often stayed over at Ashley's, but
Ashley knew something was not right. If Amy told her
she was going home, she knew that's where she was going.

(09:16):
Hours turned into a full day, and on January third,
Amy was finally reported missing. The local police the Guard
of Sivil were notified. Searches began, but from the start
there were delays and inconsistencies. Initial efforts assumed she had

(09:38):
run away, which bungled the whole investigation. From the start,
those closest to her insisted Amy would never just disappear
on purpose. She had no passport, and when she went missing,
she did not have her phone, any extra clothes, a

(09:59):
dime to her new or a plan. Friends and neighbors
scoured the area, putting up missing person posters, calling hospitals
and asking around the community quickly rallied, but as each
hour passed, Hope slipped further away. At the time, detectives

(10:21):
began investigating recent reports of a suspicious looking man who
drove a white van. This man was spotted going up
to children in that area, and the locals thought he
was trying to lure the kids into his van and
take them off to Portugal. However, no results ever came

(10:43):
from that. Ashley's mom, Debbie, said quote Amy had walked
that route to her house from hours a thousand times.
She often took the shortcut down a dirt track between
two housing estates, but I was always telling her I
didn't think it was safe and urging her to take

(11:04):
the long way around the way Ashley saw her walking
the night she left our house. She would have taken
that shortcut. It's not the sort of path I'd want
Ashley walking at night. She had nothing on her when
she disappeared, apart from the clothes she was wearing. It
doesn't add up that she's vanished of her own free will.

(11:28):
End quote. Ashley told news reporters quote, I'm really worried
something awful has happened to her. Amy never goes more
than two days without speaking to me. We'd arranged to
meet at six pm the day after she disappeared, and
she was going to stay at my house on the

(11:49):
Friday night again. End quote. Amy's mom, Audrey said, quote,
I'm just terrified someone has got Amy and is holding
her against her will. If that's the case, then please
let her go. We just want Amy back end quote.

(12:11):
On January fifth, canine's trained to detect dead bodies were
brought to the area because detectives were getting more worried
about Amy's safety. They searched a wasteland by a dirt
track that wasn't well lit near Amy's home. From Ashley's house,
Amy would normally walk the shortcut that runs right beside

(12:34):
an abandoned house, and the path has hardly any light
at all, but the other well lit route would have
taken her an extra twenty minutes to get home. A
friend of the family, who did not want to be named, said, quote,
her relatives are worried someone had seen Amy walking the

(12:55):
route and was lying in wait for her. She had
walked that route dozens of times before. Her friend was
always begging her to go the long way round, but
Amy knew that area well and always felt safe. End quote.
Prior to a press conference the family held on January sixth,

(13:17):
Audrey told news reporters quote, Amy rang me at midnight
on New Year's Eve to wish me happy New Year
from her friend Ashley's house, where she was helping babysit
the friend's younger brother. It was a quick call, but
she seemed happy enough, she stated her friends that night,
and left at ten pm on New Year's Day to

(13:39):
head home after spending the day with her and visiting
a local shopping center. I haven't seen or heard from
her since, and nor have her friends. It's totally out
of character, and I'm beside myself with worry. She's on
my passport, so she's gotten no travel documents with her.

(14:00):
She only had the clothes she was wearing, and she
had no money. Teenagers are teenagers, and Amy had her
good and bad days. We did have our rows, and
she had spent nights away from home at friends places
after we argued, but she always phoned to say where

(14:21):
she was, even if she didn't want to call home
for some reason, I would have expected her to contact
friends to say she was safe. End quote. As Audrey
held Dave's hand tightly at the press conference in the
Ocean Club Hotel in Tournueva, she said quote, We're devastated,

(14:44):
and every day that goes by, we're more and more
worried that something has happened to her. I just want
to appeal to anyone out there who may have seen
Amy to get in touch with the Guard of Sibyl.
Someone must know something. I want to appeal especially to
the British expat community living around Kalahunda, because although Amy

(15:08):
is Irish, we have been living here for the past
five years and most of her friends are either English
or Scottish. She is a popular girl with lots of
friends from school and around the area. The night she
went missing. She had been with her friend Ashley, an
English girl, and they had been babysitting on New Year's Eve,

(15:30):
then spent the day together. I know the expat community
are quite close, so I want to appeal to them
to get behind the search for Amy. A girl just
doesn't disappear from the face of the earth, enote. Audrey
was so overwhelmed with emotions that she couldn't hold herself

(15:52):
together any longer to continue speaking. Her niece, Nicola Donahue
from Dublin, who came there with other relatives, was there
to take Audrey's place when she couldn't speak. Among the
other relatives were Amy's aunts, her mother's sisters, Bernadine and Barbara,
who flew in from Dublin, as well. Amy's cousin Nicola

(16:16):
stated quote, so I am just asking if people can
look back on the night and try to remember if
they saw a teenage girl walking alone in the area
where she was last seen. Even the slightest bit of
information may be important and lead us to finding her.
I want to say a message to Amy, if you

(16:38):
have decided to run away, please come back. Your brother
Dean misses you, and we all love you very much.
Please please come home. You are not in any trouble.
We just want you back. Don't be frightened. Amy, This
is your cousin Nikola. I have flown here, especially today

(17:02):
to see you. If you hear this message, please can
you get in touch. Tell me Bernardine's son's name so
I know it's you. I will come and meet you
anywhere privately. Please get in touch end quote. That night,
there was a discovery just five hundred meters from Amy's

(17:25):
house that had Amy's family on pins and needles. Police
found a bag with underwear inside. After forensic testing, it
was confirmed that those did not belong to Amy. The
next day, news outlets talked to Amy's biological father, Christopher Fitzpatrick.

(17:47):
He knew his daughter hated Spain because she would express
that to him often, and that she just wanted to
go back home. He too said he did not believe
she was trying to travel back home by herself because
she didn't have a passport or money. Christopher was fearing

(18:07):
the absolute worst. He talked about what disturbed him quote,
I'm worried sick about her. I don't know what to think.
But if Amy was able to make contact with her mother,
Audrey or myself. She would definitely have done it by now.
The last time I heard from her was when she

(18:30):
left a voicemail on my partner Lauren's phone. It was
the day before New Year's Eve and she sounded extremely upset.
We'd missed a couple of calls from her in the
days before, and she wanted to know what was going on.
Amy hated Spain. She never really settled there and kept

(18:51):
saying she wanted to come home. She doesn't have a
passport of her own. Amy is still on her mother's passport,
so she wouldn't have been able to leave the country.
I don't know what to think, but the thought that
she may have been snatched is absolutely horrific. If somebody

(19:11):
grabbed her, she would not have been able to fight
that person off end quote. Christopher's partner Lauren also added
to that quote her brother Dean rang Us during the weekend,
sounding absolutely devastated. He was crying and really upset. He's

(19:33):
sick with worry. End quote. Spanish police also teamed up
with sexual assault and pedophilia experts to go through the
files of known Irish and British convicted sex criminals and
rapists who were living on the cost of assault. However,

(19:53):
that yielded no results. It had only been the past
summer of two thousand six when Madeline McCann went missing
in Portugal, and her family did not want Amy's case
to be sensationalized like Mattie's. A spokesperson for the McCanns begged, quote,

(20:15):
please don't turn this into a circus. Don't make it
another Mattie. Let the police do their job. I am
happy with them, and the family is happy with them.
End quote. Amy's stepfather, Dave, said the missing posters were
not bringing in any information, only distressing prank calls. A

(20:40):
friend of the family said, quote, the family's distress is
intensifying because of the number of false and crank calls.
Some are extremely offensive, and some are from people pretending
to be family members or friends. End quote. Ashley's mom, Debbie,

(21:01):
was getting really frustrated with the police because it didn't
seem they were doing much searching. She said, quote, they
need to get more teams out there and keep looking
until they find something. It's a fiesta here today and
everything shuts down, but this is something that cannot wait.

(21:22):
They need to keep looking end quote. She worried that
police were just brushing Amy off as a runaway just
because she had run away before, but those times were different.
Her pattern was to go back home in a day
or two, and this time she didn't take any money

(21:44):
or a phone either. Police tried to reassure everyone that
they were taking Amy's case seriously, saying search teams had
spent a lot of time in the Meha's mountains and
shrublings close by searching for Amy or any clues that
could help them. However, when asked about the searches, a

(22:07):
spokesperson for the police would not say how many people
were a part of the search efforts or where they
were actually looking. One thing everyone knew for sure was
that there were no searches happening near the route Amy
took home. The spokesperson claimed that if no leeds were

(22:28):
discovered by that night, January eighth, the next day more
officers were going to join in and the hunt for
Amy would escalate. After days of news coverage and reports,
things slowed down. Amy's family did not want to talk

(22:48):
about it, and her dad, Christopher, also said he wouldn't
be making the trip to Spain to search for his daughter.
The family had also made no attempts to reach back
out to the public since that press conference the previous Saturday,
but it was only three days after the press conference
that this was reported, So maybe the family needed to

(23:11):
gather their thoughts and go through their emotions. I can't
imagine how overwhelmingly depressing, stressful, and draining a situation like
this must be. Plus, they were waiting on answers from
police who were going to be doing more detailed searches
that day and were hoping to know more that night.

(23:35):
Just two days later, Guard of Civil sources would make
a bold public claim to a local newspaper, Malaga Hoy.
These sources around the police told the newspaper on January
tenth that there were many trustworthy leads that they'd gotten
early that day and Amy would be located soon. However,

(24:00):
Siver these sources did not jive with what was happening
on the ground, where three hundred police officers were still
searching for her between seven cadaver dogs, two helicopters, and
search teams consisting of the Guard of Civil Protection, Civil

(24:20):
Red Cross firemen, and local police. On the ground. Nothing
found turned out to be Amy's volunteers wanted to help search,
but they were not allowed despite appeals the day prior
for anyone who wanted to help to show up at
a nearby football stadium. Police said volunteers would only slow

(24:44):
the search down, as professionals would have to guide and
instruct such an enormous group of people through the slippery
grounds due to the nasty weather they'd been having. People
were very disappointed that they couldn't go. Oh some didn't
know about the change of plans until they heard it

(25:04):
on the radio on their way to the football stadium.
The search began at ten in the morning and concluded
at four that afternoon, ultimately finding nothing. During a press
conference after the search, Audrey could not hold it together
any longer, as she said, quote my nickname for Amy

(25:27):
is She had to put her head in her hands
and weep until she could finally get the words to
come out. Baby button, she continued. We were always joking
at how much she eats, even though she never puts
on any weight. When Amy comes in the house, the

(25:48):
first thing she does is go straight to the fridge
and devours everything that's lying around. She even came in
once eating cold brussels sprouts and gravy. It's all those
little things that we are thinking of at the moment.
When we think of Amy, I keep thinking she's going
to walk through the door and head straight to the fridge.

(26:12):
End quote. Not only was she speaking out about her daughter,
but she also felt she needed to defend herself because
people were gossiping, saying Amy was a troubled teen who
for about two years had not gone to school. Her
brother Dean also had not gone to school for quite

(26:33):
some time. Now. Audrey struck back at the rumors, saying, quote,
I want to be clear about this. Amy and I
are very very close, but as a mother and daughter,
of course we had arguments. Like most teenagers these days,
life is very different from when I was growing up

(26:55):
in Dublin. The kids grew up quickly and are under
more pressure. Of course, there were tantrums, but that was normal.
And even if Amy stormed out of the house, I
always knew where she was and she got in touch.
There was always a way back. It has never been

(27:16):
like this where there has been no contact, and that
is why I'm getting more and more worried with each
passing day. At home, Amy and her brother Dean are
the center of our lives. We have a lot of
laughs together. End quote. Amy's stepdad, Dave, said the Department

(27:38):
of Foreign Affairs had contacted them many times wanting to help,
but he said that he and Audrey decided to decline
their offer because they were happy with the way things
were being handled by the Spanish police. Even the Guarda
in Dublin had tried to give them their help. But

(27:59):
despite all the help that agencies were begging to give,
Dave said, quote, at the moment, we don't need it.
The Spanish police have been a million percent a million percent.
We don't need anything as yet. End quote. They even
turned away help from a local man whose daughter had

(28:21):
been killed in that area years before. At the end
of the press conference, Audrey made another desperate plea quote,
please let my baby Boughton go. She's just a loving
girl who never did anyone any harm in her life.
She will be frightened. Please don't hurt her and Amy.

(28:45):
If you are out there and as time is going on,
you are afraid to come home, please please don't be afraid.
There is nothing to be scared of. We just want
you back home with us. You belong. If you have
any problems. Don't worry, We'll deal with them, but please

(29:07):
just come home. End quote. As days turned into weeks,
there was still no sign of Amy. No witnesses came forward,
no evidence was recovered, not a shoe, not a strand
of hair, a piece of clothing. Nothing. The police took

(29:28):
Amy's computer to see if they could find any clues
or leads through any messages she sent and her browsing history,
while also bringing Audrey and Dave in for questioning for
the second time in one day. After hours of questioning.
When they came out of the police headquarters, they were

(29:50):
swarmed by the media. There was a frenzied bunch of cameramen,
reporters and newspaper journalists gathering around as Frank o'ray, their
pr person who once played a doctor on a British
television soap opera, was trying his best to read the

(30:10):
family's statement about being questioned twice in one day. However,
the crowd of media got so rough and chaotic Audrey
and Dave walked away, huffing angrily to their car and
drove away. Frank Oray was finally able to get out
a short statement on their behalf in English. And Spanish quote.

(30:35):
I can confirm that the parents were interviewed on two
occasions today by the Civil Guards. They are doing everything
they can to assist the Civil Guards in building up
a picture of Amy's home life and pieced together her
movements over those last few days. It is not for

(30:56):
me or for the family to reveal what has been
said end quote. Investigators began to believe it was possible
that Amy attempted to take a ferry back home to Dublin.
This came to light when Ashley had a three hour
interview with detectives where she said that Amy was supposed

(31:18):
to go with her family on a trip to Ireland
over Christmas Break on Saint Stephen's Day, but ultimately it
didn't happen. Amy told Ashley she was planning to somehow
get to Dublin on her own, saying quote, if my
mom doesn't take me, I will go. Spanish police contacted

(31:41):
the Garda, which is the state police force of the
Irish Republic, for their help with this situation. Amy missed
her dad, Christopher so much that it wasn't hard to
believe that she might have tried to get back home
to him. The Guard of Civil and space Spain asked
for help from Interpol and every police force in Europe,

(32:05):
giving fairy ports and airports Amy's picture as well. This
was all being done after Amy had been missing for
twelve days. They were just now getting in touch with
the GUARDA and Coolock to get all the information they
could about Amy's family and friends back home in Dublin,

(32:27):
as well as try to put the puzzle pieces of
her family life together. Desperate to find a clue, investigators
mapped out the path from puen Hirola, which is in
the south of Spain, up through France to the port
town of Laharv. The investigation was also focusing on the

(32:48):
theory that she'd run away or possibly been talked into
leaving by someone, or that she willingly left with someone.
They also confiscated the phones of Ashley and her mom, Debbie,
who didn't believe she tried to go to Ireland or
run away at all. Amy only had the clothes on

(33:10):
her back and those were even Ashley's clothes. So where
is Amy's brother Dean during all of this? Friends of
the seventeen year old said he moved out of his
mom's and stepdad's house in an attempt to get a
break and some distance from the smothering stress, worry, and

(33:33):
pain at home. It didn't take long for things to stall.
Spanish authorities did not treat the case with the urgency
her family hoped for. While posters faded in the sun,
Amy's father, Christopher, flew in from Dublin and began demanding answers.

(33:54):
As the Civil Protection, Red Cross firemen and local police
had pulled out of the search efforts. The Civil Guard
claimed they would continue on, but at the time, for
some reason, when it was asked how many officers were
working on the case, they would not give an answer.

(34:16):
Christopher did not trust the investigation. He believed crucial early
hours had been wasted, that the police had failed to
lock down potential witnesses, traffic cameras, or mobile data. Amy's aunt,
Christine Kenney, would later echo that, stating that the police

(34:37):
seemed slow, disorganized, and worst of all, dismissive. There were
no house to house canvasses, no forensic searches of her home.
This case lacked pressure. As the search extended into weeks,
a haunting realization began to set in. There were no

(35:00):
solid leads, No one had seen Amy after ten ten
pm that night, Not a neighbor, not a passing car,
not even a blurry figure on CCTV. People began to speculate.
Had she been lured into a car, had someone followed her?

(35:22):
Was it someone she knew? Was she even alive? Police
theories began to splinter. Maybe she had gone to meet
with someone. Maybe she was angry at her home situation
and decided to disappear. But these theories ignored the one
thing everyone closest to her insisted. Amy would never have

(35:47):
left without telling someone. As the official search weakened, Amy's
family strengthened theirs. They organized visuals, They went door to door.
They spoke to international media, pleading for support and visibility.
Over time, the case faded from front pages. Other stories

(36:11):
took over the headlines, but Amy's family never stopped. They
believed that Amy was taken, and they believed someone knew
who did it. Police were also checking Ashley's computer due
to the fact that Amy's computer had been broken for
a while and she had been using Ashley's. They'd wondered

(36:34):
if Amy had been in chat rooms and possibly met
someone who could have picked her up. The standard procedure
of taking DNA samples from family members had also been done.
Only recently, on January fifteenth, news broke that police had

(36:55):
a suspect. Detectives were told there was one person who
was believed to have made indecent proposals to Amy on
more than one occasion. This suspect was a middle aged man,
and sources close to the investigation were optimistic that they
were about to crack the case. Apparently digging into Amy's

(37:19):
private life opened new doors. All possibilities were said to
be still being looked at. Spanish police were also going
through a new list Ashley had made of other friends
and acquaintances of Amy's they'd not talked to before. Ashley
also told police that Amy had talked to her about

(37:43):
how she stayed some nights in a house in the
village of Mihas, located on top of a mountain. Ashley
did not know who was living in the house, and
police were interested in finding out. Jerry Harold, former murder
squad guarda a detective nicknamed Sheriff, wrote a column that

(38:06):
was in the January sixteenth, two thousand and eight Evening Harold.
He wrote about all the letdowns and how many times
the ball had been dropped in this case and overall
how poorly it was being handled. Fifteen days into the investigation,
he believed they spent too much time on the theory

(38:29):
that she ran away. He talked about how police actively
seemed to be nonexistent at the moment. There had been
no suspects arrested, no houses searched, or any vehicles seized
at the pedophiles and sex offenders' homes. The only movement
seen was the day before, when Spanish police decided to

(38:53):
finally search another route Amy could have taken home. Even
the breaking news of this possible suspect, who was believed
to be a middle aged man who had some kind
of emotional attachment to Amy and continued attempting to get
her into his car, seemed to be a major break

(39:13):
in the case. When the news was publicized, you'd think
authorities would have told Amy's parents personally beforehand, but no,
Jerry wrote quote. Instead, it was the family's self appointed
spokesperson who had to go to the police headquarters and
confirm the news. This is bizarre. Unlike our own system,

(39:39):
the police have not yet appointed an officer to Liai's
with Amy's anxious family, which is inefficient and unprofessional in
this day and age. He added at the end of
the column, quote, I expect this investigation to go up
a gear in relation to new information received about assession

(40:00):
in the next days or weeks. From day one, I
had a bad feeling that this young girl had been abducted. Unfortunately,
I have to say nothing that I have seen here
in my five days has led me in any way
to change that opinion. End quote. Amy's brother, Dean, also

(40:23):
released an open letter to the media addressed to Amy,
and it said quote, Hi, Amy, it's Dean here. I
don't know if you will see this, but I hope so.
Nobody knows what's happened to you. And everyone's really scared
now because it is two weeks and we haven't heard

(40:43):
anything from you. We really miss you and are all worried. Sick.
Mom is crying all the time, and the house is
just empty without you and all your noise. I miss
you a lot. I even miss you dealing my CDs
and pinching roast potatoes off my plate at dinner. Please

(41:06):
please come home, Amy. I don't know if you ran away,
but if you have, just give us a text or
something saying you're all right. Also, if you're in some
place where you can't come home or even get in touch,
then don't be scared. The police are out looking for

(41:27):
you with dogs and helicopters, and I'm sure they'll find
you and bring you back end quote. For the past
two weeks, the police had only limited their focus on
the route she normally took home from Ashley's. They were
just now exploring other possible routes instead of digging the

(41:48):
unlit dirt track on the unusual route she took home.
Like her family and others had begged, they wouldn't do it,
only concentrating on an alternate route her home. They got
this information from Amy's friends, Ellie and Kim Simpson. When
Amy moved to Dublin four years ago, Kim became her

(42:11):
first friend. Police did not even bother to look at
other paths she could have walked home that night until
a friend brought it up. In February, misinformation spread that
police were digging at the unlit dirt track, but Frank
o'ray said those reports were quote poppycock, adding that the

(42:34):
family had not heard anything new from police about the
investigation and they were still treating the case, as if
Amy took off on her own, even though during all
this whirlwind of publicity and her face being everywhere, no
one had seen her at all. A teenage girl does

(42:56):
not just vanish into thin air. Another occurrence that fueled
their theory was that a family friend, ritchie O'Shea, had
a white Ford Fiesta that was stolen shortly after Amy disappeared.
Richie went to the police to report the vehicle stolen,

(43:17):
which was two days after Amy had gone missing. He
was taken in for questioning and insisted the rumors about
her breaking into his vehicle with a screwdriver and taking
it out for a spin in the past were completely untrue.
Police were grasping at straws trying to make their runaway

(43:39):
narrative fit. February seventh, two thousand and eight, Amy would
have celebrated her sweet sixteenth birthday. The day before her birthday,
when Audrey was supposed to be preparing to mark that
special day, she was being questioned by detectives because she

(44:00):
allegedly assaulted her neighbor recently when they complained about hers
and Dave's music being too loud. A Spanish police spokesperson said,
quote a neighbor has reported Amy's mother to police. After
police have interviewed her, a report will be passed to
a judge who will decide what course of action to take.

(44:24):
I have not been told the nature of the complaint
that has been made. End quote. Earlier that week, Dave,
Amy's stepdad, had just come back from the Moroccan port
of Tangier, where he gave out flyers with Amy's pictures
on them. The city is only a short ferry ride away,

(44:45):
and even though there wasn't really a reason to go
that direction, Dave said it was something he just wanted
to go and check out since it was nearby. To
celebrate Amy's life and remember the good times, friends got
together that night and went to a shopping center slash
bar close to where she lived. Kim Simpson and Amy's

(45:10):
birthdays were only two weeks apart, and they'd always planned
to combine their sixteenth birthday celebrations. Quote. We had been
planning to do something together and invite all of our friends.
But I don't know what I'll do for my birthday
now end quote. Audrey was so distraught that she could

(45:33):
not bring herself to go to the birthday party that
her son Dean put together. She had planned to go,
but she just couldn't do it. Neither did Dave. Amy's cousin, Nicola,
talked about how horribly Audrey was suffering over the loss
of her daughter. Quote, you can imagine how Audrey is feeling.

(45:56):
It's indescribable. On a day like today, it hits especially hard.
She was trying to come down, but she was too upset.
End quote. Around forty of Amy's great friends were there
to celebrate her. Before Amy left for Spain, she and

(46:17):
Nicola had gone clubbing together. Nicola told the Sunday World quote,
she would have loved this. It's the second party she's
missed since she disappeared. I was at her sixteenth birthday party.
Two her friends held it in Spain. End quote. Nicola

(46:38):
and Amy's aunts Bernardine and Marion also added that Amy
did not run away. There was no chance that was
what happened to her. Amy's grandmother, Mara Donahue, heartbreakingly said she,
along with Amy's grandfather Joe, had been organizing and filling

(46:59):
Amy's bed room with old toys. Mara told the Sunday
World quote she used to play with all her toys
every time she came to stay in our house. Now
her toys are all in the room waiting for her.
We're not giving up hope end quote. As they spoke
to the Sunday World, they were at a benefit to

(47:22):
raise money to search for Amy, where over three hundred
of Amy's family members, family friends, and former neighbors showed up.
Mara and Joe didn't feel like being there at all,
because how could they enjoy their time when their granddaughter
was out there somewhere. In May of two thousand and eight,

(47:44):
Christine Kenney, Amy's aunt, Christopher's sister, began a campaign to
establish an urgent response service. She was absolutely shocked to
find out that Amy's name was nowhere to be found
in police computer systems in Portugal, more than two months
after her niece went missing right next door in Spain.

(48:08):
Only after she raised questions, Christine was able to get
Amy's name added to a europe wide computerized system for
policing international borders. She began advocating for a new service
like the Amber Alert system in the United States, which
is a message issued by a child abduction alert system

(48:31):
to ask the public for help in finding abducted children.
Christine said quote, we need an Amber Alert service in
Ireland and throughout Europe for our own sakes and for
the sake of our children and our children's children end quote.
She began a petition, which at the time hundreds of

(48:54):
people had already signed. Today there is an Amber Alert
Europe and it was founded finally a few years later
in twenty thirteen. A few months later, in August of
two thousand and eight, Audrey spoke out about the horrible
prank messages from people pretending to be her daughter. The

(49:17):
messages came through the social networking website Bibo. Bibo was
around from two thousand and five until twenty thirteen. One
of the messages read quote, Hi, Mom and Dad, I'm fine,
so stop worrying end quote. Audrey knew it wasn't really Amy,

(49:40):
saying quote she wouldn't call me mom, she calls me
something else. If I get a message with that name,
then I'll know. There's been a few hoaxed messages like that.
I've had text on my phone saying it's me, I've
no money, could you put free credit on my phone?
Many of them got free credit with that one. There

(50:03):
have been some on the Bibo site as well. But
the first thing I notice is the wording it's not her.
The first time something like that happened, I thought it
was her. It was within the first week she went missing,
but that actually turned out to be a friend who
had logged onto Amy's Bibo to leave a message for Amy.

(50:27):
She had Amy's password, so it looked like Amy was online.
She apologized afterwards. But when it's prank text and messages,
it is hurtful, but you have to put it against
all the good comments you get. You have to take
the bad with the good. We still get the texts

(50:49):
and emails, but we're much more focused now. But some
messages she received were even worse. She said, Quote, you
spend a lot of time talking to people online, and
one person told me not to bother looking for her
because she's dead already. I couldn't believe it. But people

(51:11):
like that are not worth even getting upset over. End quote.
Even though those kinds of messages can eat you alive.
She tried to hold tight to the messages of thoughts
and prayers around the globe who were helping her push
through this pain. Quote. It will be eight months on

(51:33):
September first, but it feels that much and longer end quote.
Earlier that summer, Amy's brother Dean moved back to Ireland,
and Audrey was there visiting him when she spoke to
the Evening Harold newspaper. In the same paper, right next
to that column was another piece written by Jerry O'Carroll.

(51:57):
He wholeheartedly believed and feared greatly that Amy was kidnapped
and murdered by someone she knew, He wrote, quote, Amy
had almost decided to spend the night with her best friend,
Ashley Rose. Ann had been getting ready for bed, but
her friend's mom, Debbie, had been concerned that she hadn't

(52:19):
touch base with her family. It was for this reason
that fifteen year old Amy went home end quote. He
continued to give his opinion based on his experience of
investigating missing person cases, which he said supports what he
believes happened. Quote She left that night around ten o'clock.

(52:41):
The investigator should discount any idea that this girl ran away.
We all must give up the myth that this child
ran away. Amy Fitzpatrick, in my opinion, has been abducted.
Here we are more than two hundred and twenty days later,
and when the family has searched extensively for Amy. End quote.

(53:05):
He mentioned the fact that the family had distributed missing
flyers for Amy all across Europe and visited the EU Parliament.
There had also been alleged sightings of her all the
way in Algeria, but at the end of the day,
she's still nowhere to be found. Quote. I imagine that

(53:26):
Amy's last minute decision to go home is vital to
the investigation. There could be no premeditated plan. My own
belief is that this is an opportunistic crime. She was
in the wrong place at the wrong time. I believe
Amy was walking that perilous land on her own when

(53:47):
an opportunistic predator saw her end quote. He wrote about
how it's so hard to think of Amy's case without
thinking about Madeline McCann's case too. Amy's case never got
as much exposure as Mattie's. Jerry said, even though Amy's
parents were still unable to be comforted, maybe soon their

(54:12):
hope would be to find their daughter's body, to give
her a proper burial and have some sort of closure. However,
he added, quote I understand, not as a former guarda,
but as a parent of a child, that they still
have hope and I don't want the Fitzpatrick's family to

(54:32):
lose hope end quote. Sadly, in September of two thousand
and eight, an englishwoman named Isabel never made it home
after an evening out in the same Spanish resort where
Amy resided. All of Amy's family was scared that there
might be a connection. Amy's aunt, Christine told the Sunday

(54:55):
World paper quote, we are obviously worried about this latest development,
and our prayers are with this woman's family end quote.
The night before, Christopher had just spoken to the Sunday
World newspaper about how he had wished so badly that
his daughter had been able to take her flight on

(55:18):
Saint Stephen's Day to Dublin. He didn't know why the
trip was canceled, but said if he could go back
in time and change things, Amy would be there with him,
enjoying all the things girls do at her age. He
also talked about what he was going through, saying quote,

(55:38):
I cannot eat or sleep properly. But I made a
promise to my beautiful daughter that I would never stop
searching for her, and I will not break that promise
no matter what. I will keep going until there is
some closure end quote. The one year date of Amy's

(55:59):
disas appearance was creeping up, but on December thirtieth, the
family received a beautiful, uplifting message from Pope Benedict that
was really special to them and revitalized them. Amy's aunt
Christine had written a letter to Pope Benedict asking him
to pray for their family as they keep trying to

(56:20):
find Amy. Then a letter arrived in her mail and
she couldn't believe who it was from. She was over
the moon about it. The letter was signed by Monseignor
Gabriel Cassia on behalf of the Pope, and it said,

(56:42):
quote the Holy Father has received your letter and he
has asked me to thank you end quote. He wrote
that the Pope would be praying for her and for
God's blessings on her and Amy's family to give them
courage and peace. Christopher and Christine had a mass arranged

(57:03):
for January first at eleven a m for the one
year date of Amy's disappearance. They planned to release balloons,
two pink ones for Amy and fifty blue and white
ones representing their dedication to the Virgin Mary as they
try to find strength going forward in their search for Amy.

(57:26):
The Kulock Family Support Group would also bring twenty doves
to release into the sky for peace and unity for
everyone in the world. As that was happening in Ireland.
Back in Spain on the route Amy likely disappeared, her
friends would be having a prayer service and a minute

(57:46):
of silence. People in the UK would also be lighting
candles simultaneously. Christopher and Christine had a fundraiser to hire
leam Brady, an Irish private detay detective, to help find her.
Dean and Christopher made an appeal on Liam Brady's website quote,

(58:08):
not a day has gone by that her family and
friends have not suffered to know where Amy is. Whether
you have direct knowledge of what happened, or are simply
a friend who might have heard or seen something, please
take the time to send details, no matter how insignificant
they may appear. End quote. As months turned into years,

(58:34):
Amy's story has never had a definite conclusion. Some of
the most unsettling and revealing twists are still to come
as we wrap up with Part two next week. As
the investigation drags on and suspicions grow darker, tensions within
her family begin to crack wide open a shocking killing,

(58:57):
strange behaviors, and miss chances build a sinister portrait of
what might have really happened and who may have known
all along. In Part two, we'll explore the suspects that
surfaced and the questions that steal won't let Amy's loved

(59:17):
ones sleep. This isn't just a mystery, It's a wound
that never healed. Stay with me because the next chapter
is where everything begins to unravel. Thank you for listening
to this episode and until next time, friends, please keep

(59:38):
yourself safe, be aware of what's going on around you,
protect yourself and others as much as you can, and
take care. Love you guys.

Speaker 1 (59:50):
Thank you for listening to this episode. As we close out,
let us not forget awarenesses our greatest defense in a
world that can be dark and grim. Vigilance is our
beacon of hope when it comes to the cases we
have explored together that have remained unsolved. If you happen
to hold a piece of the puzzle, dare to step forward.

(01:00:11):
As Arthur Lois McMaster bouge Hold once said, the dead
cannot cry out for justice. It is a duty of
the living to do so for them. Until we reconvene.
My friends stay vigilant and stay informed.

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181. Amy Fitzpatrick: The Space Between Goodnight and Gone - Part 1 of 3

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}181. Amy Fitzpatrick: The Space Between Goodnight and Gone - Part 1 of 3