Secret cave could crack 'Vanishing Triangle’ where 6 women disappeared
An expert believes a secret cave in Ireland could hold clues in the 'Vanishing Triangle' case where six women disappeared in five years.
In the mid-1990s there were a number of suspected murders of women with convicted kidnapper and rapist Larry Murphy potentially being involved. Josephine 'JoJo' Dullard, Fiona Pender, Ciara Breen, Fiona Sinnott and Deirdre Jacob were all last seen within an 80-mile radius in an area now known as the "vanishing triangle" and no one has ever been convicted for their disappearances or deaths. The disappearances of the women aged between 17 and 25 remain a mystery 30 years on, but now there may be a breakthrough.
Larry Murphy who served 10 years of a 15 year sentence for a brutal attack on a woman in the Wicklow Mountains (PA)A new documentary, Six Silent Killings: Ireland’s Vanishing Circle, delves into the case with new insights from investigators and interviews with family and friends of the missing women. The Sky Documentaries film names a man as one of "a number of persons of interest" in three of the murders and reveals that specially-trained "cadaver dogs" may be getting closer to where the bodies might be buried. Martin Walker, the former Superintendent for the Kildare District, revisited the cases of two of the women, 17-year-old Deirdre and 21-year-old JoJo and had their cases changed from missing persons to murder.
He told The Sun: "The cadaver dogs made a significant mark in the area of an underground cave in the Wicklow mountains. It's my understanding that that hasn't been searched by Gardai or any individual. I’d have a concern if that area wasn't searched. Why wouldn't it be? We have to go and search."
Gardai search woods at Monicknew for the body of missing woman Fiona Pender. (PA)An FBI profile suggested the killer was a "married man, with children and no run-ins with the law who has perfected the craft of kidnapping, killing and disposing." As a hunter, Murphy was licensed to shoot in the Wicklow Mountains so as well as knowing the area very well, his job involved digging quarries and septic tanks. He also matched the description of the man caught on CCTV in the post office where Deirdre was last seen.
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Larry Murphy was jailed in January 2001, having been convicted of kidnapping, repeatedly raping, and attempting to murder a young Carlow woman on 11 February 2000, in the Wicklow Mountains. Forensic expert David Kenny believes this could not have been Murphy’s first crime. The daughter of a seventh woman, Antionette Smith, who was murdered in July 1987 and was found eight months later in Glendoo Mountains, in Enniskerry, believes Murphy should be questioned over her death but Gardai have ruled him out as a suspect.
But retired forensic detective Brendan McArdle tells the documentary: "It is a possibility that Larry Murphy could have been involved in this. But I cannot say; I have no facts. These cases still remain unsolved. Was it one, was it two, was it multiple killers? I do not know." Ciara, 17, 19-year-old mother-of-one Fiona Sinnott, and Fiona Pender, who was seven months pregnant when she was last seen aged 26, were later believed to have been killed by someone known to them.
The families of the women are desperate for justice and hope the new film will bring attention and more action to the case once again.
Six Silent Killings: Ireland’s Vanishing Triangle is available on Sky Documentaries and NOW.
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