Bad Women Presents Stolen Sister: Elizabeth Plunkett

Summary

Valley of Shadows – "Bad Women Presents Stolen Sister: Elizabeth Plunkett"

Pushkin Industries | Released March 30, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode from the Valley of Shadows podcast, featuring a collaboration with Bad Women Presents: Stolen Sister, is a powerful exploration of the life, murder, and legacy of Elizabeth Plunkett—a young Dublin woman brutally murdered by Ireland’s first known serial killers, John Shaw and Geoffrey Evans, in 1976. The narrative is driven by exclusive interviews, emotional testimony from Elizabeth's sisters, and a deep dive into how a family’s decades-long silence is finally broken in the pursuit of justice and dignity for their beloved sibling.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Breaking Decades of Silence

• The episode opens with sisters Bernie and Kathleen deliberating the decision to reach out to podcasters and investigators, breaking nearly fifty years of family silence about Elizabeth’s murder.
• Quote:
  • (Bernie, 03:01) “We’ve talked long and hard about this.”
  • (Kathleen, 03:29) “This is our last resort.”

2. Introducing Elizabeth Plunkett and Her World

• Listeners are brought back to Ringsend, Dublin, where Elizabeth grew up in a large, close-knit family, described with warmth and nostalgia for 1960s and 70s Dublin.
• The Plunketts' modest two-bedroom cottage and simple joys contrast sharply with the horror to come.
• Quote:
  • (Eddie/Thomas Plunkett, 07:48) “Pembroke Cottage is a small tiny cottage. You couldn’t all live there so we all had to kind of get a move on, move out, you know, there wasn’t a bob in Rings End.”

3. Elizabeth’s Personality and Independence

• Elizabeth emerges as headstrong, progressive, fun-loving, and independent—working at a printing factory, traveling, and rejecting the era’s traditional roles for women.
• Quote:
  • (Bernie, 11:02) “If she got her mind set on something, she was going to do it. Headstrong, you’d call it [...] She would stand up to [her brothers], because my father would say, oh, it’s only the girls now. Wash the dishes. And she’d say, there’s no reason why the brothers can’t wash dishes too.”
  • (Kathleen, 11:20) “She read Cosmo and she had notions, you know.”

4. Contrasting Lives: Elizabeth vs. Her Murderers

• A stark comparison is drawn between the secure world of Elizabeth and the criminal past of John Shaw and Geoffrey Evans, English ex-convicts who immigrated to Ireland with violent records and sinister ambitions.
• The men’s aim to kill “one woman a week” is revealed, chillingly paralleling the coming tragedy.
• Quote:
  • (Eddie/Thomas Plunkett, 09:08) “People will remember the name Shaw and Evans. It’s as evocative here as Myra Hindley and Ian Brady are in the UK.”

5. Family and Personal Memories

• Through interviews with family and Elizabeth’s best friend Mela, listeners get intimate glimpses of her relationships, sense of style, and a budding romance with Damien.
• Holiday snapshots, favorite music (ABBA), and stories about her adventurous spirit humanize Elizabeth amidst the unfolding true crime narrative.
• Quote:
  • (Mela Bush, 14:12) “Whatever she did, I did. Whatever I did, she... as a friend. She was the best. You could tell her any secret.”

6. The Fateful Night: August 28, 1976

• The episode meticulously recounts the details of Elizabeth’s last day, drawing on police statements and interviews:
  • A night out in Brittas Bay with friends, a trivial argument with Damien turns pivotal.
  • In a moment of awkwardness, Elizabeth leaves the pub—alone.
• Simultaneously, Shaw and Evans are prowling the area, searching for a victim.
• Quote:
  • (Bernie, 27:03) “Over one argument... if hadn’t it happened, life would be so completely different today for her family.”
  • (Annette, 27:25) “It was around 10:30pm when Elizabeth Plunkett walked away. I think she was more embarrassed than anything because Damien had said it to her in front of us.”

7. Inevitable Tragedy

• The narrative closes with Shaw and Evans having missed one potential victim, soon intercepting Elizabeth as she leaves the pub. The horror of what followed is foreshadowed, setting up the next episode’s focus on the crime itself and the failures of justice that would follow.
• Quote:
  • (Roz Purcell, 27:43) “With that Elizabeth Plunkett walked out alone into the dark night in Brittas Bay.”

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Pain of Injustice
  (Bernie, 06:12) “When somebody’s murdered, the only people they have to speak for them are their family. We’re being denied any sort of justice. We’re Elizabeth’s voice now.”
• On the Difference Pre- and Post-Tragedy
  (Roz Purcell, 12:24) “For everyone in the Plunkett family, their lives have a before and an after. Life before Elizabeth was murdered... life after Elizabeth was murdered, and those lives are so vastly different.”
• On the Killers’ Intentions
  (John Shaw or Geoffrey Evans, 24:47) “There must be something wrong with me when we did this. I know it were wrong, but I never thought it would finish up like it did.”
• On the Family’s Courage
  (Roz Purcell, 03:29) “And when they do send it, they’ll be breaking the seal of silence their family has held for almost 50 years.”

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [02:43] – Bernie and Kathleen debate breaking their silence
• [04:23] – Decision to send the email that starts the investigation
• [07:07] – Nostalgic portrait of Elizabeth’s Dublin childhood
• [11:02] – Family anecdotes about Elizabeth’s independence
• [13:42] – Introduction of Mela, Elizabeth’s closest friend
• [19:00] – Setting the scene for the summer of 1976, family routines
• [27:16] – The argument and Elizabeth’s decision to leave alone
• [28:14] – Shaw and Evans stop and pick up Elizabeth

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Tone and Storytelling

The tone is at once intimate and investigative, with sensitive narration by Roz Purcell and direct contributions from family that convey warmth, heartbreak, and steely determination. The episode skillfully intertwines personal memory with procedural accounts, creating a vivid, empathetic, and suspenseful portrait of both victim and crime. There is an emphasis on dignity, family love, and the long shadow cast by injustice.

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Summary

"Stolen Sister: Elizabeth Plunkett" is a compelling, emotional account of a family’s journey to break a decades-long silence, seek justice, and reclaim the memory of a vibrant, independent young woman lost to Ireland’s first serial killers. Through moving interviews, carefully reconstructed events, and an unflinching look at systemic failures, the episode stands as both a poignant memorial and a sharp critique of justice denied.

For listeners who missed it:
This episode not only documents the facts of a notorious case, but goes further—giving Elizabeth Plunkett her voice back through her sisters and community, and reminding listeners of the enduring wounds of violent crime and the power of family in the face of loss.

Transcript

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[Roz Purcell]

Pushkin hey listeners, Roz Purcell here, host of Stolen Sister. I'm dropping by to share an episode of Bad Women Presents Stolen Sister with you. It's the tale of Elizabeth Plunkett, a 23 year old woman from Dublin who was murdered by Ireland's first serial killers. I hope you enjoy this story, which was meticulously investigated by the RTE Podcast team. If you can't wait to find out what happens, binge episodes of Bad Women Presents Stolen Sister early and ad free with a Pushkin plus subscription. Find Pushkin plus on the Bad Women Present Stolen Sisters show page in Apple podcasts or Pushkin FM Plus. It's July 2024 and two sisters are about to make a big decision.

[Bernie]

We are very quiet. We would not in a million years want to make ourselves spiritual put out

[Roz Purcell]

there for any way they're building up the courage to send an email.

[Bernie]

I couldn't even sing a song if you asked me to in company.

[Roz Purcell]

This is Bernie.

[Bernie]

We've talked long and hard about this.

[Roz Purcell]

Bernie and her younger sister Kathleen feel like they're in a battle, a battle for their big sister, Elizabeth.

[Kathleen]

We had tried every avenue, everything. We, we appealed and appealed and appealed. We went to the dpp, they said no. We went to the guard commissioner, no. We went to state solicitor's office, no.

[Roz Purcell]

The email Bernie and Kathleen are planning on sending, it's to us.

[Kathleen]

This is our last resort.

[Roz Purcell]

And when they do send it, they'll be breaking the seal of silence their family has held for almost 50 years.

[Bernie]

Sunday night, we're on the phone to each other and Kathleen said, I'm thinking of what to say in the email.

[Kathleen]

I said to myself, I hear, I'll send it now.

[Roz Purcell]

Elizabeth Plunkett was one of the victims of Ireland's first serial killers. And all these years later, Bernie and Kathleen are attempting to finally seek justice and restore some dignity for their sister. Dear Documentary on one team. My name is Kathleen. My sister Bernadette and I are the younger sisters of Elizabeth Plunkett, who was one of the victims of JS and GE along with Mary Duffy in the summer of 1976. It's too long and detailed a story to explain properly by email. Kind regards, Bernadette Barry. Kathleen Nolan.

[Bernie]

You got back onto me and said, I've sent the email. And I went, oh, no, oh no, what are we going to do? What are we going to do? And then she got back on to me. You won't believe us.

[Kathleen]

I think 15, 20 minutes later I got a reply and he said, I'd be very interested to speak with you.

[Roz Purcell]

And that's how we first came to meet Bernie and Kathleen.

[John Shaw or Geoffrey Evans]

Hello.

[Bernie]

How are you?

[Kathleen]

I'm good.

[Roz Purcell]

Bernie and Kathleen are in their 60s. Kathleen works in healthcare and Bernie's retired. They are warm and clearly close sisters finishing off each other's sentences, just like me and my sisters. Something you'll hear throughout the podcast. And the other voices you might hear throughout are producers Nicholeen and Lean. And one other thing I should tell you is that this story includes details of sexual violence. It could be difficult for some listeners, so please keep that in mind and take care. Gordy at Wicklow, supported by detectives from Dublin Castle, have intensified their search for the Dublin girl. Elizabeth Plunkett, who's been missing for 10 detectives, joined the search after some clothing and shoes belonging to the girl were found about two miles from a public house outside Whitlow town. The reason Bernie and Kathleen are finally speaking out is not Just because of what happened to their sister Elizabeth, but because of what didn't happen to the two men who confessed to brutally kidnapping, raping and murdering her.

[Kathleen]

I thought all these things were taken care of. I never thought I'd see myself at 62 years of age dealing with this.

[Roz Purcell]

Everything they thought they knew about what happened after Elizabeth's murder, they only recently found out it's all wrong.

[Bernie]

When somebody's murdered, the only people they have to speak for them are their family. We're being denied any sort of justice. We're Elizabeth's voice now.

[Roz Purcell]

I'm Roz Persil and from RTE Documentary on one this is Stolen Sister Episode

[Bernie]

one Elizabeth this is Pembroke Cottage is now where we used to live, where Elizabeth lived. There's the house there.

[Roz Purcell]

This little street of terraced cottages is in Ring's End on the banks of the Liffey in Dublin city where the river meets the sea.

[Bernie]

You see the river wall when we were kids this is where we played.

[Roz Purcell]

Rings End is busy today with traffic from the Eastlink toll bridge. But back in the 1960s and 70s when Elizabeth and her sisters were growing up here, Ringsend was a much quieter, tight knit community full of working families,

[Bernie]

very few cars so you could kick ball and play tennis. Great summers, Katie playing here, nobody closed their doors. You'd play in your porch playing mother's.

[Kathleen]

This is the house she left I never came back to.

[Roz Purcell]

Elizabeth came from a family of 10. Her mother and father had eight children, four boys and four girls. Elizabeth was a middle child and everyone had to fit into this two bedroom cottage in Rings End.

[Kathleen]

Very simple boys rooms and girls room.

[Roz Purcell]

Their parents slept on a pull out bed in the living room. Eddie was the eldest boy in the family, Elizabeth's big brother and he had to move out when the younger ones came up.

[Eddie or Thomas Plunkett]

Pembroke Cottage is a small tiny cottage. You couldn't all live there so we all had to kind of get a move on, move out, you know, there wasn't a bob in Rings End. If you don't know any difference, you think it's quite normal, you know.

[Roz Purcell]

And Thomas was Elizabeth's little brother.

[Eddie or Thomas Plunkett]

I was the youngest boy and ahead of me was Elizabeth so we were quite close. She had a big personality. She could be quite bossy as well actually, you know, to her younger brother anyway.

[Roz Purcell]

The other siblings were Liam, Sean and Joan, the eldest sister and the first to get married when Elizabeth was 15.

[Kathleen]

We have lovely pictures of us all at the wedding. Across the road there in the church. Bernie and I are flower girls. Liz's Bridesmaids.

[Bernie]

She was the chief.

[Kathleen]

She was like maid of honor. Very happy times.

[Roz Purcell]

If you look across the Irish Sea from Ringsend on a fine day, you might just make out the northwest of England. This is where the two men who would take Elizabeth's life came from. JS and ge, as Elizabeth's sisters call them. They can't even say their names still. That's John Shaw and Geoffrey Evans. They're the men who came to Ireland in the mid-1970s and set out to murder one woman a week.

[Eddie or Thomas Plunkett]

One of the most notorious crimes ever committed in these islands.

[Roz Purcell]

Ireland's first serial killers.

[Eddie or Thomas Plunkett]

People will remember the name Sean Evans. It's as evocative here as Myra Hindley and Ian Brady are in the uk.

[John Shaw or Geoffrey Evans]

Two of the most evil, diabolical human beings that I ever came across as.

[Roz Purcell]

Elizabeth grew up in the safe surroundings of Rings End. John Shaw and Jeffrey Evans racked up multiple convictions for burglary, assault, possession of heroin and attempted rape. In between prison sentences, Evans worked as a labourer and Shaw as a coal miner. They both married and had children. They actually only met each other in prison when they were serving time for robberies and assault. When Shaw was being sentenced, the judge said to him this appalling sexual assault was one of the worst cases any court could be called upon to deal with. You are a persistent and dangerous criminal and a menace to the public. All of this was a million miles from the life Elizabeth and her sisters knew in Dublin.

[Bernie]

Was a colorful time then, the beginning of the 70s. After coming through the 60s, there was a big kind of change then for women. There was more independence, there was more work and there was more money. So they were saying don't stick back in the old fashioned way like their parents. You got married, you had children, you stayed at home. This wasn't going to be a life that Elizabeth wanted.

[Roz Purcell]

When Elizabeth was about 16, she got a job in a local factory called Thomas Delarue, a company that printed foreign currency.

[Bernie]

I started to work with her in Delarue. We were in the social club there together. It was a great place to work.

[Eddie or Thomas Plunkett]

Elizabeth was the woman around the house. She was the boss. Four brothers. She would take over Saturday morning when she did day off and cleaned the house from top to bottom.

[Bernie]

If she got her mind set on something, she was going to do it. Headstrong, you'd call it and was having brothers. She would stand up to them because my father would say, oh, it's only the girls now. Wash the dishes. And she'd say, there's no reason why the brothers can't wash dishes too. So that's the type of person she

[Kathleen]

was, you know that energy that that age group has, everybody's old fashioned. If she'd argue with my dad she'd say that's my prerogative and we'd be all going, prerogative, what's that? What's a prerogative? You know. So she, she read Cosmo and she had notions, you know.

[Roz Purcell]

In Eddie's house in Cork he picks up a picture in a frame and we.

[Eddie or Thomas Plunkett]

The lovely photograph with Elizabeth, she was full of it, very confident, very athletic. So that.

[Bernie]

She was Elizabeth, wasn't she?

[Eddie or Thomas Plunkett]

Oh she was, she was, she was great, yeah.

[Roz Purcell]

For everyone in the Plunkett family, their lives have a before and an after. Life before Elizabeth was murdered, my mother

[Eddie or Thomas Plunkett]

would dance around the kitchen and sing. She thought she should have been the film star. We were a very united, large Dublin working class family. The bond then was, was unique and

[Roz Purcell]

life after Elizabeth was murdered and those lives are so vastly different.

[Eddie or Thomas Plunkett]

Little did we know that all of this would come crashing down. It destroyed the peace.

[Roz Purcell]

In 1974, as Elizabeth turned 21, Shaw and Evans were released from prison in England and within a short time they'd brutally kidnapped and raped three victims in the Greater Manchester area. The police hunt for two men believed to have been involved in the rape of two women and a 15 year old girl was being stepped up in Perthshire today. Women in the area of Cheshire were warned today don't walk alone in isolated spots. The warning came from police hunting two men who callously raped a 15 year old local girl in a caravan. At the time there was a large manhunt but Shaw and Evans evaded justice. They assumed false identities and came by ferry across the Irish Sea to hide out in Ireland. Once they got here they began carrying out burglaries before getting caught and sentenced to two years in Dublin's Mountjoy prison. Meanwhile, back in Ringsend at the delarue factory, Elizabeth made friends with a co worker called Mela Bush.

[Mela Bush]

I'm Mela Nesbitt Knee Bush. I worked with Elizabeth side by side. I think we were about three or four years working together. We just became very, very close friends. Whatever she did, I did. Whatever I did, she as a friend. She was the best. You could tell her any secret. You have a fantastic friend. We just did lots of things together. We went everywhere together.

[Roz Purcell]

Mela had a brother called Damien who became Elizabeth's boyfriend.

[Mela Bush]

They got together. I was the little gooseberry. I was always stuck between the two of them now, I would be maybe a couple of years behind them or I might be sitting somewhere and I could just hear the two of them shouting at one another that they loved one another. Damien, I love you. And Damien would say, liz, I love you. You know, it was just that. That was just the way they were.

[Roz Purcell]

At 23, Elizabeth really liked Damien and it wasn't long before she introduced him to her younger sisters.

[Bernie]

They obviously clicked with each other. He would come down to the house, call down.

[Kathleen]

My job was to make sure the brasses was polished. If Damien was calling down, she'd say, do that and I'll give you whatever. And she'd leave a few bob for me in the press in a teacup. She was great. She'd pay you, but you'd have to do what she said, like, you know, she was the boss.

[Roz Purcell]

Damien was a mechanic working the family garage business in Inchicor in Dublin.

[Kathleen]

He had the coolest Capri car. Like, I mean, you're not living.

[Bernie]

He would pull up outside. I mean, I'll say, liz is here. And he could step in for a minute. I think he was afraid of me dad. My dad had a very, what would you call it, Katie way about him. Like, you know, yeah, it's like, what's your intentions? Just coming here in the dark? And abba, they were such ABBA fans. Damien had every tape of ABBA and he would put that in the car, blurred with the windows open on a sunny Sunday, going off for a drive. But Damien was a really nice guy, I have to say. She was madly in love with him and I think he felt the same about her.

[Roz Purcell]

Damian was into cars and around the time he had met Elizabeth, Damian and a friend of his, Joe McCoy, had decided to get into motor rallying. So they went halves on a car together. And why I'm telling you this, because bizarrely, this deal would play a part in changing the course of Elizabeth's life. Damien was also saving money for a holiday. So were his sister Mella and Elizabeth. Elizabeth loved travel and the outdoor life, going camping and hiking around Ireland.

[Kathleen]

She was in Ono and she was in the Rangers across there on the daughter. It was all about going places.

[Roz Purcell]

And Elizabeth was also beginning to explore the world beyond Ireland.

[Bernie]

She was in Bulgaria as well, Spain a few times.

[Roz Purcell]

In July 1976, Elizabeth took together with her boyfriend Damien and his sister Mela, Elizabeth's best friend. The three of them went on a holiday to Saint Tropez. Kathleen and Bernie were so impressed by their big sister who Just seemed so glamorous.

[Kathleen]

I remember thinking, oh my God, how exotic. It's out of France. They were camping and caravanning and boating, you name it. But there's the most beautiful pictures of her.

[Bernie]

There's the pictures.

[Kathleen]

There they are, the two of them together. Isn't that a gorgeous photograph?

[Bernie]

They look so.

[Kathleen]

They were cool. They were like really, really cool. Look at them kissing. They were only five months together, but you know, they're the best five months of any relationship, aren't they?

[Roz Purcell]

The photos show Elizabeth lying in the grass, wearing kind of round John Lennon style, yellow tinted glasses, looking up at the camera, smiling. And in another, she's sitting cross legged in a field of daisies. She's barefoot, wearing jeans and a T shirt. There's also a VW Beetle and a caravan in the background. And honestly, it could be the COVID of a 70s album.

[Kathleen]

She loved her style.

[Bernie]

She loved to go up Grafton street and then there was the dandelion market, the jeans and the Remember our clogs.

[Kathleen]

Anything that was out, she had it, you know, and we would try to copy her.

[Roz Purcell]

Elizabeth bought some clothes in France, including a navy jumper with Santra Pay written on the front of it. Not long after Elizabeth came back from Saint Tropez in early August 1976, John Shaw was released from prison in Dublin. He was immediately arrested on foot of an extradition warrant from UK police charges which included the rape of two women and a 15 year old girl in Manchester. But, and this is unbelievable, Shaw claimed he wasn't the same person named in the extradition warrant. And so the judge released him on bail as Gardy set out to prove his identity. And three weeks later, the exact same thing happened to his accomplice Geoffrey Evans. And just like that, they were both free. Of course, during this hot spell, the government is asking people to conserve water to preserve our reservoirs. 1976 was one of the hottest summers on record in Ireland and Elizabeth's sister Bernie still remembers the thrill of Ireland's heat wave.

[Bernie]

Best summer we'd had for years. And every weekend was a sunny weekend. Everybody wanted to go to a beach.

[Roz Purcell]

Sun was still shining at the end of August when Elizabeth made plans for the last Saturday night of the summer. According to the weather men, the weather's going to hold good for several more days.

[Damien Bush]

I've been a friend of Damian Bush since we were in Bolton street College in 1970.

[Roz Purcell]

These words are from the statement Damien's friend Joe McCoy gave as part of Elizabeth's murder investigation, read by an actor

[Damien Bush]

about Wednesday 26 August 1976. I rang Damien from work and he told me that his sister Mela had a friend with a caravan in British Bay. And he invited my girlfriend and myself down to the caravan for a ballad session. We arranged to meet at the house.

[Roz Purcell]

This was what Elizabeth had planned for that Saturday, a night away with friends to mark the end of a brilliant summer. Britus Bay is in County Wicklow, just an hour south of Dublin city and has five kilometres of soft sandy beach. And for years it's been a spot for Dubliners to skate the city when the sun is shining. Bernie was 17 and that Saturday lives in her mind still.

[Bernie]

Lisbeth was getting ready to go. Damien was to pick her up sometime in the afternoon. My mom and my Aunt Lily were sitting in the kitchen having a cup of tea. I was just relaxing on the bed while just throwing these few things together. So there was a wedding on up at the church. My mom and my Aunt Lily rambled up to the church. So they were standing outside the church, obviously waiting for the bride to come out. Damien had eventually come along, pulled up outside the cottage. I heard her going out the door and she said, I'm off, I'll see you. And I said, bye, I'll see you then when you get back. So off she went out the door, put the bags in the boot and drove up to come out of Ringsend. You come around by the church then to leave to do a lift. And my mom and Auntie Lily then said, there's my mom. Beep. They beep the car and my mom and Aunt Lily waved her off. Have a good time. And little did my mam know that, that she was waving her off forever.

[Roz Purcell]

We can piece together everything that happened next from statements that all of the friends later gave to Gardi. In Damien's statement, he describes how they headed for a nearby hotel bar to meet up with all of their friends.

[Damien Bush]

The three of us drove to Sachs Hotel in Donnybrook. I drank two or three pints of Caroline and Elizabeth drank soda water and lime. We stayed in Sachs till about 7pm

[Roz Purcell]

or 7:30 as Elizabeth, Damien and their gang of friends were getting ready to drive to British Bay. John Shaw and Geoffrey Evans were also on the move on their release from prison. They'd spent the last few weeks lying low in feathered County Tipperary. But on that Saturday evening they borrowed a car and drove towards Dublin, as Shaw and Evans outlined in the subsequent statements they gave to Gardi.

[John Shaw or Geoffrey Evans]

The car was in Austin. Jeffrey and I left, fettered in the car. On the Saturday and we drove to Dublin. We went there to collect suitcases of Jeffries at the railway station along the quays. We collected them at about 4 or 5 in the evening. We had a meal in the city. We decided to go to Britt Bay, County Wicklow and break into some caravans.

[Roz Purcell]

But on the way they decided to stop off at Jack White's pub for a drink.

[John Shaw or Geoffrey Evans]

Somewhere outside Arklough. We went into a pub on the main road and had a few drinks. We stopped at a pub. It's on the main road to Arklough, beside a signpost indicating British Bay. It were around about 8 o' clock at night when we got there. I drank two pints of lager and John at the same.

[Roz Purcell]

At around the same time, Elizabeth, Damien and their friends were driving to British Bay to a pub called McDaniels. As some of Elizabeth's friends, Annette and Eileen, would later tell Gardi, we arrived

[Annette]

at McDaniels between 9 and 9.30pm it was dark when we got there. When Liz was approaching the pub door, she was wearing white jeans, a blue top with Santa Pay across the breast. She had navy blue sandals.

[Roz Purcell]

Damien described how they all settled into McDaniel's and got drinks.

[Damien Bush]

We went up the steps and over to where Roy and some of the girls sat down around the table. The men were standing, as were Elizabeth and Annette. The place was crowded. We were enjoying ourselves.

[Roz Purcell]

Elizabeth had only met one of the girls, Jo's new girlfriend, Annette, earlier that day.

[Annette]

At around 9:45pm, Damien was talking, laughing and joking with Liz. He put his arm around her and said, ah, you're me little pet. She just got embarrassed and smiled.

[Roz Purcell]

Not far up the road from McDaniels, the two men, Shaw and Evans, finished off their drinks. As Evans explained, it was dark when we come out.

[John Shaw or Geoffrey Evans]

I don't know what time it was, but we were a couple hours in the pub. We drove down to Bruce Bay.

[Roz Purcell]

By this stage, Shaw and Evans were on a mission, knowing multiple rape charges and other serious offences were awaiting their extradition back to the uk. They were going to do exactly what they wanted to do while they were on the run. And a word of caution at this point, because what we will tell you about these two men's actions could be difficult to hear for some people, because their intention was to kidnap, rape and kill at least one woman a week for as long as they could get away with, would make them Ireland's first serial killers.

[John Shaw or Geoffrey Evans]

There must be something wrong with me when we did this. I know it were wrong, but I never thought it would finish up like it did.

[Roz Purcell]

Back inside McDaniel's Pub, Elizabeth's boyfriend Damien was arguing with his friend Joe about that car they'd bought. As Damien later outlined to Gardi, I

[Damien Bush]

sold the car without telling Joe about it. That night in the pub, he drew up the subject and said it was a bad show on my behalf to sell the car without telling them. I told him not to be annoying me, but he kept on and on about it.

[Roz Purcell]

Joe's girlfriend Annette was talking to Elizabeth. As all of this was going on,

[Annette]

Joe and Damien were talking in low tones. Damien said in a higher tone of voice, joe, forget about it. I don't want to talk about it anymore. Liz and I stopped talking when we heard Damien raising his voice. We looked around at the two of them. I just looked at Joe's face as if to say, what's going on? And Liz crossed between Joe and I and faced Damien.

[Roz Purcell]

No one could have imagined that what happened next would set in train a sequence of events that would see Elizabeth's life being savagely taken from her.

[Damien Bush]

I put my finger on her left cheek and said, go away, don't be annoying me. She said, if you do that again, I'll go home. I said to her, go home then.

[Roz Purcell]

By this stage, John Shaw and Jeffrey Evans were driving around outside McDaniel's pub and they were on the lookout.

[Bernie]

They were hunting women, that's what they were doing. And have admitted that we were talking

[John Shaw or Geoffrey Evans]

about girls and Jeffrey said he was going to pick up a bird and have it off with her. He said he wanted a small bird. Jeffrey were driving. We drove around the roads for a small while looking for a bird. We saw one standing at a corner. Jeffrey stopped and asked her if she wanted a lift. I got out of the car and walked up the road. At the time, this girl told Jeffrey that she were waiting for somebody and he picked me up again.

[Roz Purcell]

That young woman had no idea of the fate she had just escaped. Gardy never managed to trace or speak with this woman. And tragically, her lucky escape was a sliding door moment for Elizabeth over one

[Bernie]

argument that if hadn't it happened, life would be so completely different today for her family.

[Roz Purcell]

This argument would change all of these friends lives in some way, most of all Elizabeth's.

[Bernie]

She said to him, that's it, you're ruining the evening. I'm gone.

[Damien Bush]

She walked off in the direction of the door, having said right.

[Annette]

It was around 10:30pm When Elizabeth Plunkett walked away. I think she was more embarrassed than anything because Damien had said it to her in front of us. I felt like following her, but on second thoughts I decided not to in

[Roz Purcell]

case I'd further embarrass her with that Elizabeth Plunkett walked out alone into the dark night in British Bay if you were in Brittus Bay on 28 August 1976 and have any further information on Elizabeth Plunkett, please contact us in confidence at documentariesrte ie Join us in our next episode as just moments later that Saturday night begins to turn into a devastating nightmare for Elizabeth Plunkett and everyone who loved her.

[John Shaw or Geoffrey Evans]

We stopped and picked this girl up. She said are you going to Dublin? And I said we weren't going to Dublin but we could still give her a lift. She got into from passenger seat Stolen

[Roz Purcell]

Sister is narrated by me, Roz Purcell. The music is by Oscar winning composer Stephen Warbeck and performed by the RTE Concert Orchestra. Readings in this episode were by Patrick Dunn, Kathy Hayes, Kenny McGilliforaig, Jade Hill, Jessica Phelan and Kean Cleary.

[Malcolm Gladwell]

Hand and sound design and orchestra recordings

[Roz Purcell]

are by me Ciaran Dunn, production assistance is by me, Shauna McGreevy and the

[Bernie]

series is written and produced by me, Nicholeen Greer.

[Roz Purcell]

The executive producer is Liam O'. Brien. If you've been affected by any issues raised in this episode, please visit RTE IE Helplines. Until next time. Thanks for listening. Sam.

[Annette]

Sa.

[Roz Purcell]

Binge Episodes of Bad Women present Stone Sister early and ad free with a Pushkin plus subscription. Find Pushkin plus on the Bad Women Presents Dolan Sister show page in Apple Podcasts or at Pushkin FM Plus. Pushkin plus subscribers can access ad free episodes, full audiobooks and exclusive binges of other true crime podcasts throughout the year.

[Julian Edelman]

This is Julian Edelman from Games With Names. I want to take a second to talk about something that's personal to me. I've had the privilege of working closely with Robert Kraft for a long time, and one thing I've always respected is how seriously he takes up standing up to hate. As a Jewish athlete, my identity is something I am proud of, but I also know what it feels like to be singled out for it. That's why this new commercial for the Blue Square Alliance Against Hate that aired during the Big Game really hit home. It's about showing up for someone when they're targeted, even if you don't have the perfect words. And sometimes standing next to someone is enough. And you can show support by sharing

[Bernie]

the Blue Square Secrets, Lies, Infidelity, Deceit.

[Roz Purcell]

What happens when the person you love

[Bernie]

the most turns out not to be who you think they are. Your Sunday nights just got a lot

[Roz Purcell]

more interesting because the number one hit

[Bernie]

podcast Betrayal, is now a primetime TV show.

[Roz Purcell]

I implore you to watch Secrets and

[Bernie]

lies Sundays at 10pm 9 Central on ABC and stream on Disney and Hulu every Sunday. A new story of staggering Betrayal.

[Malcolm Gladwell]

This is Malcolm Gladwell from Revisionist History. In a world where everyone has access to the same data and the same AI, how do you actually win? Most people are fighting for 1% gains. But the real upside, the exponential growth, comes from the creative leap. It's what Sir John Haggerty calls the creative dividend. It's the ability to make your entire business irreplaceable, from your product and your process to your company culture. John's eight part series, Creativity for Growth is the playbook for building your creative capability and embedding it into your organization. Creativity is a system, not a spark. Learn it today. Visit creativityforgrowth. Com.