Daphne (2:41)

Yeah, that's a really eerie story as well. And we had planned to do both of these without even realizing that they could be connected. So we talk about them in each other's episodes.

Heath (2:50)

Yeah, they kind of cross over a little bit.

Daphne (2:52)

Yeah. So we'll kind of like dive into a little bit of Fiona later. But if you want to hear that full episode, you know where to find it. So without further ado.

Heath (3:00)

Alright guys, this is episode 590 of Going West. So let's get into it.

Daphne (3:42)

In March of 1993, a 27 year old American woman returned home to her Dublin apartment after picking up groceries to cook dinner for friends. But when her roommates arrived home two days later, they found the apartment empty and her spoiled groceries still sitting in their shopping bag. Concern quickly turned to panic as sightings of her in an Irish mountain town surfaced, leading investigators down many fruitless paths, which all culminated in an arrest in June of 2025, 32 after she vanished. This is the disappearance and believed murder of Annie McCarrick. Annie Bridget McCarrick was born on March 21, 1966 as the beloved only child of parents Nancy and John. She was raised in Bayport on the south shore of Long Island, New York. And from a young age she was known for being outgoing, smiley and full of life. So it was no surprise to her family when her very nurturing personality led her to dream of becoming a schoolteacher. Annie's longtime friend Linda remembered fondly, quote, she was really funny and smart and could be mischievous and serious, of course, beautiful inside and out in every way, and also curious and adventurous. From a young age, Annie knew that she wanted to live abroad. And like many do, she had kind of grown disenchanted with the surroundings that she grew up in. Like she wanted to get out. And excitingly, while attending Skidmore College In Saratoga Springs, New York in December of 1987, Annie got an opportunity to travel abroad to Ireland with her mom's cousin Danny. Because Danny was teaching Irish studies at a university in New York, so he was already going. Now her family's lineage actually was Irish and they were very connected to their roots. She was really curious about her Irish heritage. So this is like exactly where she would want to go anyway. But still, according to her mom, Nancy, Annie was initially a little bit hesitant. She didn't want to be away from home for Christmas because that's when Danny was doing this trip. But Nancy recalls, I actually talked her into going to Ireland because Danny used to do a student trip there every Christmas. I asked her to go with Danny on this trip and she really didn't want to be away from home on Christmas and she didn't have any desire to go. But I persuaded her and she ended up going on a three day trip. When she was there, she called me and asked if she could stay there. I said no, she couldn't, as she had to come back and finish the semester here. But then she went back the following year to go to school at Maynooth in Ireland. So yeah, she was like nervous at first. And even though she really wanted to see a different place, I think, you know, that fear of not knowing if she would actually enjoy it was kind of weighing on her along with obviously being away from family. But clearly she loved it.

Heath (7:05)

I mean I, I feel her on this one because I had no desire to move to Los Angeles before I moved here. But then you kind of showed me the ways and opened up my eyes to the world and now I love it here. So it's definitely understandable.

Daphne (7:20)

Yeah, sometimes you just gotta take the leap. So Annie returned the following year to finish up her studies at St. Patrick's College, which is a division of Maynooth College, which is just outside of Dublin.

Heath (7:33)

And while she was there, Annie started making friends and putting down roots and even started dating someone, a man named Philip Brady. While they were together, she became very close with Philip's brother Hillary and his fiance Rita. And yes, Hillary apparently is a man's name. I did not know that.

Daphne (7:52)

You know what's funny is I looked this up because I'm like, oh, I wonder if there are like other male Hillary's. And before the 20th century Hillary was a predominantly male name. And into the 20th century it became like dominated by the female sex. And now it's like unisex. But we, we know it more as a female name because of the era

Heath (8:13)

we live in, but because of Hilary Duff. Come on.

Daphne (8:16)

Yes, thank you, Hilary Dove.

Heath (8:18)

Well, Annie and Philip didn't last. And when they broke up, she still maintained a pretty close relationship with Hillary and Rita, despite moving on to date another man named Dermot Ryan. So just remember that as we continue to talk about Hillary and Rita in this episode. So Annie stayed in Ireland for three years of studies and then she returned home to New York for a while to complete her Master's degree in German and art. At first, Annie and Dermot kept their relationship going despite the distance. But things did eventually fizzle out. Even though she planned to return to Ireland after school. Now, despite her parents wishes that she return to live in the United States permanently, Annie just couldn't wait to move back to Ireland and settled there in January of 1993.

Daphne (9:08)

It's kind of funny how at first her mom is like, you should go. This would be so fun.

Heath (9:12)

And she's like, yeah, I'm staying forever now.

Daphne (9:14)

Yeah. Like, Annie was like, hesitant, and now Nancy, he's like, wait, wait, wait. You know, I mean, understandably so her, her mom misses her. So I think it was a bit of a shock for everyone that she wanted to become a permanent resident because at first she was so. She had such cold feet about the idea of a three day trip. And now she's like, okay, bye forever.

Heath (9:31)

Yeah, I mean, they had some pretty mixed feelings because like you said, you know, she had family ties to Ireland. So her dad, John, credits her with actually connecting their family to their history and getting them excited about it, saying, quote, she's the one that pulled all the roots out, went and saw my wife's relatives, my relatives, and she established this huge network. And by the time my wife and I got over there, it was. I felt that we were going back home. A really strange feeling. But like you said, Daphne, her parents really missed her and wanted her back in New York or at the very least in the States. Cause remember, she is their only child, so this was kind of tough for them.

Daphne (10:11)

Yeah, but she's gotta spread her wings.

Heath (10:13)

I agree. John remembered sadly, quote, it was one of the biggest family crises we've had. The last time Annie returned to Ireland, her dad said goodbye at the family's Bay Port home because, I mean, this is actually very endearing. He just couldn't stand to bring her to the airport and leave without her. Upon her return, she stayed in Clondalkin, which is a southwestern suburb of Dublin, at the family home of her ex boyfriend, Philip, and of course his brother Hillary. You know, at this point, she's single, she's still friendly with these guys, so no big deal. Well, within a few weeks, she found permanent residency at St Catherine's Court in Sandymount, which is a suburb southeast of downtown Dublin, along the Dublin Bay, with two friends. Eventually, she did hope to become a teacher, as we mentioned, but she needed to complete more training courses in order to teach in Irish schools. So at the time, she was working at a coffee shop to supplement some income.

Daphne (11:13)

So Annie was blossoming in her move from New York to Ireland. She was making friends and enjoying putting down these roots. And according to her mom, Nancy, quote, she loved cooking and she loved music in Ireland, she was taking a beekeeping course. She was taking a real dancing class or Irish folk dancing, and was hoping to qualify as a secondary school teacher. And I love this, you know, I love, I feel like a lot of people after school ends, they're like, okay, I'm done learning. And it's like she's, like, taking a beekeeping course. Like, she's dancing. That's so cool.

Heath (11:47)

Yeah, she's really trying to, like, embrace the culture and really put herself in the middle of all of this.

Daphne (11:53)

Yeah, she was very much in love with her new life. But many people in her life have since said that Annie was a bit naive about the danger she faced as a young woman in the city and perhaps was too in love with Ireland and its culture. Like, to the point where she had this idealized view of the country. Like, she felt like she was safe everywhere and that she was in this utopia. You know, she wasn't looking at it like it was still, you know, not like a real place, but she was. She was very much idealizing it in every single way. Well, In March of 1993, having just celebrated her 27th birthday, Annie was looking forward to her mom visiting the next week and was excitedly planning activities for them to do together. Her mom was kind of giving her this belated birthday visit, so they were going to have a great time, just them gals. On the morning of her disappearance, Friday, March 26, 1993, she chatted with her roommates Ida Walsh and Jill Toomey, before they left for their respective weekend getaways, giving Annie the apartment to herself until Sunday. That morning, which was her day off, remember this? She did not work that day. That Friday, she headed to a Quinsworth grocery store, which is now a branch of the Tesco chain, which was just down the street from her apartment. Annie was then captured on CCTV at her neighborhood branch of the Allied Irish Banks, or aib, where she requested to switch her checking account from the branch in Klondalkin to the one in Sandymount. Because, you know, she had been in Clondalkin. Now that she's in Sandy Mount, she's like, I gotta switch my bank.

Heath (13:34)

Yeah, she just moved.

Daphne (13:35)

Then she stopped at a phone booth and called her friends Hillary and Rita to confirm their plans for the following day before calling another friend to see if she wanted to go for a walk in the foothills of the Wicklow Mountains near the small town of Enniskerry. But her friend Ann had hurt her ankle and couldn't go, so they just agreed to go another time. And Annie bid her farewell after sharing that she may still take the bus down to Enniskerry herself anyway, which is a trip, by the way, that would have taken her over an hour. But this was kind of strange given the weather. It was a chilly and drizzly early spring day and the sun would set at 6:49pm so it kind of seemed like odd conditions to head out on a solo hike so far from her home.

Heath (14:24)

I will say that being from Oregon, this doesn't seem that strange to me because people literally hike in the pouring down rain.

Daphne (14:31)

It's true, it's true.

Heath (14:33)

But I mean, yeah, maybe a solo hike that's that far away would seem a little bit strange.

Daphne (14:39)

Yeah, but you're right, it is fair. It's not like it's, it's not like it's a blizzard. Like it's just a little rainy.

Heath (14:46)

It's a bit rainy.

Daphne (14:47)

But there are far more suspicious reasons why I'm kind of maybe prematurely bringing this up as we'll get into.

Heath (14:53)

Sure. Definitely get that. Well, for the rest of the day though, many other sightings came forward with multiple people claiming that they were positive that they had seen 27 year old Annie herself. The timeline gets pretty messy as no one could be absolutely certain. Now, the next day she had plans for Rita and Hillary to come over for dinner, which she was planning on cooking. So she got the groceries the day before. This is the day that, the day that she went on this hike or supposedly went on this hike, which is Friday.

Daphne (15:24)

Yeah. This is when she went to the Quinsworth or the Tesco.

Heath (15:28)

Yeah. But after getting back, when she came inside the apartment after grocery shopping, you know, before that alleged hike, she set her shopping bags down and then seemingly left almost immediately. At least if we're to believe the eyewitness accounts of her day. Annie's bag of unpacked groceries was left inside the apartment with the receipt dated for two minutes after 11am the day of her disappearance. And this felt especially strange because the grocery bag in her apartment contained the ingredients for the dessert that she was planning to make for her Cafe Java coworkers the following day too, as well as perishables, including meat, butter and heavy cream for the dinner that she was going to cook the next night.

Daphne (16:16)

So she had all these ingredients to cook and bake for other people and they're just being left out on the counter.

Heath (16:23)

Yeah. Which is really odd. Well, according to a plumber who was working an assignment near Annie's apartment, she returned home with the bag from the grocery store around 3pm and then reemerged again at 3:15pm carrying with her only a purse.

Daphne (16:41)

So why would she go into the apartment, drop the groceries, but not put them away, and then Leave again with her purse.

Heath (16:48)

Well, multiple sightings report Annie running to catch the bus from Sandy Mount to Ranelagh, which is a 15 minute trip west. Then she would have to exit and catch the number 44 bus from Sandy Mount to her destination of Enniskerry. However, because of the lack of pervasive security camera footage, Annie was not captured after leaving the bank. So all of these sightings are speculative. And the only thing that she was believed to have with her that day was her large brown leather shoulder bag, which is also not really something that you would maybe take on a hike. So was she in the Wicklow Mountains for a different reason, or was she never there at all?

Daphne (17:34)

The following day, Saturday, March 27, 1993, Rita Fortune and Hilary Brady headed to Annie's house for her late birthday celebration. But when they arrived at her apartment in Sandymount, Annie didn't answer the door. After buzzing for a few minutes, Rita and Hillary headed to a pub nearby, wondering if Annie maybe ran to the grocery store at the last minute and needed more time because actually, other than them celebrating her birthday, she was making them dinner, actually, as a thank you for helping her put down roots and, you know, for being there for her when she was still so new to the country. So they left for a bit, but when they returned and Annie continued not to answer the door, Hillaria actually got in touch with Annie's mother, Nancy, because he realized that he didn't have Annie's phone number. And this is so odd to me, maybe it's nothing, but how do you have her mom's number but not her number? And yet he's making this international long distance call. Like, I'm, I'm not saying he's suspicious. I just find it so odd that there doesn't seem to be a clear answer for this online. Like, Obviously this is 1993, so people didn't store numbers in phones like we do now.

Heath (18:52)

I mean, people didn't even really have smartphones.

Daphne (18:55)

Well, no, I know. I mean, like I'm saying, today we have smartphones and we have like a contact list, but back then they didn't have any of that. So I don't know, just feels odd that they happen to have Nancy's number on them yet not Annie.

Heath (19:08)

Well, some people have speculated that Annie gave her friends Nancy's number, possibly in preparation for Nancy's trip.

Daphne (19:15)

But it's just that also doesn't really make sense to me because that would be her, you know, her U.S. number. I don't know, like, you're not gonna be.

Heath (19:22)

You're not gonna be calling New York if, like, she's not even gonna be there.

Daphne (19:26)

Yeah, I don't know. It's. It's just weird. And like, I have a bunch of my friends, parents, numbers. I'm sure a lot of us do. So, like, my mind goes to that. Maybe it was more of like, oh, here's my mom's number. But it's like, I don't know.

Heath (19:39)

But then why not just give your number to your friends?

Daphne (19:42)

Well, that's why I'm like, why wasn't. Why. Why did they happen to have Nancy's and not Annie's? Did they just. Maybe they had this random conversation, oh, my mom's coming in. Here's her number. Like, I'm trying to figure it out, and maybe it doesn't need to be figured out. Maybe it doesn't matter. But yeah, obviously, either way, they are worried enough to make a long distance call to family. And they were just saying that they hadn't heard from Annie since the day before when they talked about this dinner plan in the morning. But even upon hearing this, Nancy wasn't really alarmed, so she just kind of gave them her daughter's phone number. But Annie still failed to answer the phone, and eventually her friends just gave up and went home. After spending Sunday continuing to try to get a hold of her, Rita and Hillary began to grow really concerned. She was also supposed to stop by the coffee shop where she was working at the time, Cafe Java, to pick up her paycheck and bring over that homemade dessert that Heath talked about, which she had promised her coworkers. So not only did she neglect to stop by on Saturday, but she failed to arrive for work that Sunday morning as well. On Monday, they contacted Nancy again to let her know that they still hadn't heard from Annie. So Nancy was shocked and she moved up her trip, getting on a plane as soon as she could in order to go to Dublin and report her daughter missing in person. Meanwhile, her roommates Ida and Jill came home from their holiday weekends on Sunday, March 28, and found a bag of spoiled groceries in an empty apartment. They reported Annie missing that day while Nancy rushed to Dublin to speak with the Guardi or the Irish police herself. Then on March 30, Nancy went to meet with them in person and kind of confirm this missing persons report and say, yes, she is still nowhere to be found. I'm here. And then she began a grassroots search of her own.

Heath (21:50)

Annie's father, John, who was actually a former New York police officer, soon joined Nancy, and they spent weeks posted up at a bed and breakfast, just canvassing with posters, walking the streets, talking to locals and conferring with the guardian about their missing daughter. But when the investigation proved to be too slow, they retained the services of a private investigator who was recommended to them by the American Embassy. And this began a long search, with the McCarricks staying in Dublin to search for her for six months. So one of the most probable tips was that of her arrival to Enniskerry to take a stroll through the Wicklow Mountains on the late afternoon, early evening of her disappearance. And remember, she was last seen getting off the bus in the area of the wicklow Mountains after 4pm and then the sunset that day at 6:49pm she was also supposedly spotted at a pub about four miles, or about 6 kilometers away from where she would have gotten off the bus at her stop in Anniskerry. And again, this raises serious questions about the weather and the time of day and why Annie would have felt compelled to abandon her idea of taking a stroll in the foothills in favor of this lengthy walk to a pub known for playing host to different tourists, Johnny Fox's pub in Glencolin.

Daphne (23:16)

It just feels, not to harp, just so strange to abandon the groceries and travel all that way. But, I mean, it also could have looked like this, like she dropped the groceries off, maybe changed or spent 10 to 15 minutes collecting things or whatever, and then maybe completely forgot that she didn't put her groceries away and then decided to enjoy a day off in beautiful Ireland, exploring a new place. Like people do that all the time. They take little day trips to get out, which I could absolutely see her doing. And maybe she liked the idea of a rainy stroll, and then when she got there, it was too rainy, so she headed to a super cute pub instead because this place is freaking adorable.

Heath (23:56)

But, yeah, I can only imagine it's a pub next to the Wicklow Mountains in Ireland.

Daphne (24:01)

Yeah, it's just. But it is strange that it was four miles or six kilometers away from that bus stop that's. That's not just up the street.

Heath (24:10)

Well, it seems like that is very likely what happened, if all these accounts are true, which will come into question later because we're not quite sure, but a bouncer named Sam Doran claimed without a doubt that. That he had seen Annie there and she wasn't alone. He claims that she was with a man that evening and that the man had paid her cover charge for her so that they could enjoy live music together. But whether they arrived together and she went to this area for him or they just happened to meet there, we don't really know. And by the way, Sam came to this realization after his co worker, a guy named Paul O'Reilly, pointed out her picture in the local newspaper. Though Paul wasn't as certain, Sam was absolutely sure that he had seen Annie there on the last night that she was seen alive in public.

Daphne (25:02)

And I will say she has a pretty unique look. She has very, very, very dark eyebrows and kind of a, like a longer, almost pointed nose.

Heath (25:11)

Yeah, she looks somewhat distinct, I would say.

Daphne (25:14)

Yeah. So I, I wouldn't be. And of course she's American. So hearing her voice matching these things up, her kind of more specific look with her American accent, even though this was a touristy pub, like, it wouldn't be impossible for me to believe that this man remembered her after a few days, right.

Heath (25:32)

And Sam recalled, quote, I ended up leaving here, the door open, and the girl, when she came in there, she strolled over, just about over there. And at that stage I just caught her up on the arm and said, sorry love, there's a cover charge in here. And at that stage she stopped and she looked in her bag like she was looking for money, but it wasn't like she was going to get money. It was more like a gesture for the gentleman behind her to pay. But she seemed to be peering across the room like as if she was looking for somebody. So at that stage, chat behind, he said, I'll get that, and then stepped forward and he stepped in there, had a pint in his left hand, he put it over there on the counter and he took money out of his right hand pocket and then he paid the COVID charge for the two of them. And the chap was wearing a wax jacket. He seemed about five' eight, five' ten, squarish face, clean shaven, tightish hair. I would say flat chested, square shoulders, looked like the lad was fairly fit, you know. And then at that stage I was paid. They proceeded across to the far side of the room and we didn't see them leave at the end of the night. Like, you know, we had a full house here. So he's basically saying, you know, I saw her, she didn't pay me the COVID charge. This guy who just happened to be with her ended up paying the charge for the two of them and then we didn't see them leave, which would

Daphne (26:57)

then entail that she was with that guy when she went into the pub. It's not like she had been there for an hour and you know. Cause sometimes you go to a bar and there isn't a cover charge until a certain time when like the music starts or the event starts or whatever.

Heath (27:10)

Sure.

Daphne (27:11)

And then, you know, so it's not like, oh, everybody that's here has to pay the COVID charge if you want to stay. Like she had just gotten there and somehow got past the door without paying that cover. And then it was like, wait, wait, wait, come back. And this guy paid her cover for her. So were they talking outside? Did they go there together?

Heath (27:27)

Also, an interesting point here is that he paid for both of them at that point. So I don't know if maybe he hadn't paid his cover charge either.

Daphne (27:36)

Well, exactly. That's why it seems like they both went there or got in at the same time.

Heath (27:41)

Yeah, that's what you would kind of assume. So. Sam recalled the man being in his late 20s and offered up a description which was circulated to no avail. All the roads leading in and out of Enniskerry were searched in case Annie had walked along the shoulder or maybe hitchhiked her way to the pub and left behind a sign of her presence. Because the walk to the pub would have been about an hour and 20 minutes. So she absolutely could have done this. But again, it was rainy.

Daphne (28:11)

Yeah. And most of the walk would have been down this like single. Like it's a very small, narrow single lane road. Like single as in one. One way road in rural Ireland which we will post photos of so you can see the lack of sidewalk.

Heath (28:25)

Yeah. And you would assume that that would be a pretty dangerous walk for sunset or nighttime. But all possible tips were chased down which placed Annie all over Ireland, but none of them were found to be true. With spring activities, sports and busy schedules, it can be tough to keep academics front and center. IXL makes it simple to stay consistent and build momentum without adding stress.

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Daphne (36:10)

Supposedly, there was a member of the IRA or the Irish Roman Republican army, which is a militant organization classified as a terrorist group by the Irish government, at Johnny Fox's that night. So one prevailing theory is that he got a little too chummy with Annie and told her more than she should have known. Then, realizing the error of his ways, he asked her to leave the bar with him or maybe offered her a ride home and instead killed her, burying her body in the surrounding wilderness to cover his tracks. However, the private investigator secured by the McCarricks does not believe that Annie ever even made it to Johnny Fox's that night and that the sighting of her there wasn't really her. Which, like, he. This is what's so freaking hard.

Heath (37:03)

My brain is about to explode.

Daphne (37:05)

I know, because it's like we wanna. We wanna dive into all these different elements. Like, we were just kind of diving into the. The possibilities surrounding, oh, well, maybe she came with this guy and La la about her at the pub, and it's like, well, that probably wasn't her. So it's like everything that you wanna explore is just immediately shut down. You know, it's. This is a really tough case. Well, the PI Came upon yet another potential sighting of Annie, which he feels is much more credible. And this is actually also in Enniskerry. So the female witness, who was an employee of Poppies, which is a very cute coffee shop in Enniskerry. I mean, this whole. This whole town is adorable. So beautiful, great architecture. So much cuter than where we live.

Heath (37:52)

Small village in Ireland. Again. Yeah. Charming.

Daphne (37:55)

So this woman, this employee of this coffee shop, recalled seeing Annie come in with a man that afternoon, purchasing snacks and then leaving together. So if this is true, this could explain her trip to Enniskerry, which, again, would give you the impression that she went there to still meet up with a man. So whether it was at Johnny Fox's or at Poppy's, it seems like she might have been with a man if she was there.

Heath (38:23)

Yeah, and it feels more likely now with these tips that she was in Enniskerry. I mean, that's really the point to be made here, right?

Daphne (38:32)

Because all these people are saying, yes, I saw this woman. But it's also like, well, if we're to believe this woman, then that means Sam from the pub, what he said wasn't true. But then if you are to believe Sam, then this woman at Poppy's is not. Not that she's not telling the truth, but her account is incorrect.

Heath (38:51)

Well, could she not have gone to Poppy's to maybe get some coffee, and then after that, she went to Johnny Foxes for a little live music?

Daphne (39:00)

I mean, absolutely, that. That could explain how she got to Johnny Foxes, because now she is with a man and she has a ride with him. So this would make sense. But the PI doesn't think that both are true and instead just thinks this Poppy sighting is true. Especially given the volume of American tourists at the pub on any given night, many of whom could have been mistaken for Annie. There was also a fair amount of logical theories that are more difficult for Annie's friends and family to stomach, given the fact that they involve someone she knew. In the days preceding her disappearance, according to the account of one of Annie's friends, she had reconnected with an old friend or boyfriend and actually regretted their rendezvous. Now, while the details are secondhand, it's believed that this man was Philip Brady, you know, her ex, the brother of Hillary, and that he was in a relationship at the time, and that her regret stemmed from shame over being complicit in him cheating. You know, she didn't want to be the other woman. Well, suspiciously, in order to avoid repercussions for this, he provided an alibi to prove that he wasn't with Annie at all before she went missing. But it was found to be false.

Heath (40:24)

So this motherfucker is lying then?

Daphne (40:26)

Yeah, like that's not a good look.

Heath (40:28)

No, not at all. So if the little information we have on the. The Phillips stuff isn't suspicious enough, there were also reports of someone stalking and threatening Annie in the weeks prior to her disappearance. Supposedly, this person scared Annie and was physically threatening to her on at least one occasion. On the one year anniversary of her death, her parents would offer up a $150,000 reward for information leading to an arrest. But even that was not enough to bring forth a reliable tip. So the years began to tick by with no answers. But then, in 1997, the Guardi received a seemingly solid lead that Annie had been buried in a pet cemetery. But it was thoroughly searched and There was no sign of her there. The following year, a cold case team interrogated two men that were living in County Wicklow at the time of her disappearance, but they were subsequently released without arrest. And actually, one of the men was a career criminal and convicted kidnapper and rapist, a guy named Larry Murphy, who lived in County Wicklow at the time of Annie's disappearance.

Daphne (41:44)

Interesting person.

Heath (41:46)

Yeah. And seven years later, this guy, this total piece of shit, would be arrested for the abduction, rape, and attempted murder of another young woman in the area, though he would serve just 10 years for this crime. Then came a bombshell development in the case. The entire timeline might have been incorrect and the Guardi had been chasing down the wrong leads for decades. Because obviously, you know, we've been discussing heavily that she was in Enniskerry on her final day. Like, we've been talking about her being there the entire time based on multiple sightings. But in 2023, police determined that this didn't seem credible, and they actually don't believe that she was ever there at all.

Daphne (42:36)

I just can't.

Heath (42:37)

And that instead, she actually disappeared from Sandymount, which, again, was the very neighborhood that she lived in, which is just

Daphne (42:44)

like, for, like you're saying for decades, people were thinking that she was last in Enniskerry, which is over an hour away from Sandy Mount.

Heath (42:53)

And maybe the only. The only reason why they assumed this is because her. Her friend Anne said, yeah, she came up to me and said, hey, you want to go take this hike in. In the Wicklow Mountains? And then I didn't go. So maybe this whole thing was just perpetuated because of that.

Daphne (43:10)

Something we know is that in many cases, people report sightings of victims, like saying, oh, I saw Heath on January 21st. And then it's like, well, Heath passed on January 19th, so you couldn't have seen Heath on January 21st. Started using, I didn't pass.

Heath (43:28)

I'm still here, guys.

Daphne (43:30)

And then we know that you saw somebody that looked like Heath but actually wasn't Heath, or your whole tip is a lie. So it. It's totally possible that everybody. The. The person that saw her at the bus stop, the. The guy that saw her at Johnny Fox's, the gal that saw her at Poppy's, all saw somebody else that they thought looked like Annie but wasn't Annie, because that happens all the time.

Heath (43:57)

Yeah, it's very, very possible, but they still really don't know the. Exactly where she disappeared from technically. But the last movement of hers, that actually feels concrete. Is when she was at her apartment, you know, dropping off that grocery bag. So that really. Is that really. It's so funny. Just because they start investigating all these things way out there in the Wicklow Mountains in an Enniskerry, and it's like, now we're right back to square one at her fucking place where she dropped off her groceries.

Daphne (44:29)

But it's hard because, like you said earlier, Heath, there is no security camera footage in this case.

Heath (44:34)

Yeah.

Daphne (44:34)

So if somebody says, like, the guy from the pub, Sam, he's saying, I am absolutely certain that that was her. And it's like, okay, you can be certain, but I'm not certain. So unless I see proof and evidence. So it still could have been Annie at the pub. We just have no way to prove it. So from the police's perspective or the Guardian's perspective, it might be safer for them to assume it wasn't her, since they can't prove it. But the last thing they can prove is her grocery bag got to her apartment, and the most likely scenario there is that she brought it into the apartment, but she still could have been in Enniskerry.

Heath (45:15)

Well, I did want to talk about this earlier. The fact that if she was there to drop off her groceries and they weren't unpacked, they weren't put away, and there was perishables in her grocery bag, so I feel like it would be, like, much more realistic if she had gone missing from the area in which she lived, because that would make a lot more sense to me. She. She set her grocery bags down, she goes, oh, man, I. I forgot to grab one thing at the store. I'm just gonna. I'm just gonna shoot back over there, whatever, And. And then she goes missing or whatever.

Daphne (45:50)

Yeah. And the police seemingly agree with you that that makes a lot more sense than her leaving her perishables on the counter for the rest of the day to go to Enniskerry by herself.

Heath (46:03)

Yeah. Could she have dropped the grocery bag, stepped outside to meet somebody, and she was abducted right there? Like, you know what I mean?

Daphne (46:08)

For sure.

Heath (46:09)

So possible.

Daphne (46:10)

Well, on March 24, 2023, the Guardian officially upgraded her disappearance to a murder investigation, holding a press conference in which they confirmed that sufficient evidence exists which supports her manner of death being homicide, even though they don't have a body. Of course, we don't know exactly why they think this, because. Sorry to spoil, but her case is still open, so they know a lot more than we do. Of course. However, the prognosis for finding answers was Positive, with Detective Superintendent Eddie Carroll stating his belief that modern forensic techniques may help to solve her case. A year later, on March 26, 2024, 31 years after Annie's disappearance, is when the Guardian announced this shocking development that we were kind of just talking about that the bus ride that Annie supposedly took to Enniskerry and her alleged trip to Johnny Fox's were officially eliminated as a possibility. So before they were saying, we don't really think that we're going to put any more weight in that. And then.

Heath (47:21)

And now they're saying, yeah, without a doubt, we don't believe that she was there.

Daphne (47:26)

Which is like, my brain hurts. I don't know why they're able to do that so concretely. Again, we know they have a lot more information than we do, so it seems like if they are able to say that, they have to have evidence to the contrary. At the very least we know they didn't suddenly get security camera footage because it just didn't exist. So something else would have had to put her elsewhere. And also, the last credible confirmed sighting of Annie, which was the CCTV footage of her at the Sandy Mount branch of her bank, AIB was ruled out as evidence too, because guess what? They didn't uncover for decades that the footage was actually from 11 days before her disappearance.

Heath (48:13)

Oh, God, that's. It's just such a mess. It's a mess because now they're saying, oh, we. We leaned heavily on the CCTV footage, like, maybe this has something to do with her disappearance. And then now it's like, nope, has nothing to do with her the day she disappeared.

Daphne (48:29)

That doesn't work either. Yeah. So again, Heath, what you said about her being home with her groceries, that is still the last known movement of hers, of course, assuming somebody didn't go drop the bag off for her. Well, the current working theory is that her death was believed to be a sexually motivated crime and that her perpetrator was most likely someone that she knew who had a grudge or maybe a score to settle. But also, Annie's was the first in a series of disappearances that took place place in Ireland between 1993 and 1998, in a small region between Dublin, Wexford and Offaly, which came to be known as the Vanishing Triangle. Six women are at the core of this investigation, including Fiona Sinnett, who again, we just covered on our bonus series. If you want to subscribe and listen to it, it is such a strange story as well. Josephine Dullard, Deidre Jacob, Kiera Breen, Fiona Pender and Of course, Annie McCarrick, multiple other women have been connected to this theory as well, though some of those cases have actually since been solved. And while the proximity of the cases and the similarities of the circumstances surrounding the disappearances kind of seem too alarming to be coincidental, the idea that a serial killer is stalking the area is actually widely believed to be a hoax. But of course, we can't be sure without more evidence. Officially, the Guardi does not believe them to be connected, though. And at least one of these women is suspected of disappearing of her own volition.

Heath (50:14)

Yeah. And we talked about the fact that the Guardi actually set up a task force specifically for these cases. And, you know, after years of working on these cases with this task force, they really didn't find any evidence that they were connected.

Daphne (50:30)

Yeah, there's. They have like one main suspect who has been publicly named, but they. None of these cases are solved, so

Heath (50:36)

they don't know it actually was Larry Murphy.

Daphne (50:39)

Yes, exactly. Yes.

Heath (50:40)

Larry Murphy was that guy that we talked about earlier who it could have

Daphne (50:43)

been responsible for Annie's case as well. But as we're about to get into, seems like it was somebody much closer to home for Annie.

Heath (50:53)

Yeah. Because on June 12th of 2025, guess what happened. Annie's case saw its first arrest. Despite the passage of 32 years. Described only as a businessman in his 60s, a suspect was finally arrested in connection with the crime. Unfortunately, he declined involvement, but he was held for the requisite 24 hours for questioning. Though without being able to connect him to the disappearance, the Guardi were forced to let him go. And because of this, his name has not been released in the press, and he actually remains the prime suspect in the case. And his identity is purported to be that of Philip Brady, Annie's ex boyfriend. In addition to the arrest, a house in the Clondalkin area was sealed off and a search was conducted both inside the home and outside in the garden. The Guardian announced that, quote, significant excavation was done to the home, which included digging under an extension to the house that had been built 15 years prior.

Daphne (52:03)

So that's kind of interesting.

Heath (52:05)

Yeah, they're digging under the house, basically,

Daphne (52:07)

but that construct a little construction was done, I mean, 15 years prior. Would it still been like 15 years after Annie's disappearance? So that's still. It's not like it happened that month or something, but. But still.

Heath (52:19)

Well, shockingly, the house is believed to be the house where Annie first stayed when she moved to Ireland, the family home of her ex, Philip's brother, Hilary, and his then fiance, Rita.

Daphne (52:31)

Yeah. Cause we know they lived in Clondalkin. That's where she was staying when she went back. So it clicks.

Heath (52:38)

And the Guardian maintained that the current owners were not believed to have been involved, nor were they under investigation, leading us to believe further that it was someone in the Brady family who was being investigated at the time of the search. The Guardian even announced a no fly zone for drones, not wanting to compromise the integrity of the investigation. But unfortunately for Nancy and her loved ones, who were holding out hope for answers, nothing was found in that search. So if something did happen to Annie in that house years and years ago, the evidence didn't remain after the house was sold.

Daphne (53:17)

The Guardi have appealed to the public, of course, imploring anyone who may have seen or heard anything 32 years ago to come forward with any information, even if they already have. One key piece of evidence that may have been lost to the passage of time is that of her brown leather bag, which she carried with her everywhere. According to retired officer Alan Bailey, the bag would be a goldmine if it was found, given that it may offer a DNA sample. Detective Bailey has stated, quote, the fact that the bag still remains missing would suggest that if she was taken and the bag wasn't disposed of, it was kept as a souvenir by her assailant. In a press conference addressing possible updates about the case, Detective Superintendent Eddie Carroll announced, Annie's father, John, has passed away, not knowing what happened to his daughter. Annie's mother, Nancy, deserves to know the truth. She deserves to know what happened to her daughter on or about March 26, 1993, she is still waiting for answers 30 years later. I and the investigation team are determined to gather all available information and evidence to to find those answers and bring this matter to a positive conclusion. Though the search of the Klondalkin home and the arrest unfortunately didn't lead them anywhere, at least not yet. The most persistent theory is still that Annie and Philip rekindled their relationship upon her return, despite the fact that by then he was apparently in a relationship with somebody else. And then Annie felt guilty for being the other woman and she either broke it off or maybe was going to tell the other woman. So Philip, maybe with the help of his brother Hillary, killed her and covered it up. Annie's dad, John, passed away in 2009 and he was a tireless advocate for his daughter until the end of his life. But sadly, long before that, the pressure had really taken its toll on he and Nancy's marriage and they divorced five years after Annie disappeared. Nancy McCarrick still resides in Bayport, New York and remains hopeful for answers in her lifetime. Carrying on has been a constant struggle, but she maintains that it's what Annie would have wanted. Explaining quote, I thought that if she had lost the person she loved most, what would I want her to do? And I thought I wouldn't want her to curl up and die and not want to go on. So you just say to yourself, you don't have a choice. Annie is described as 5ft 8 inches tall and weighing about 140 pounds or at least when she went missing, she had medium length, light brown hair. If you have any information about the disappearance of Annie McCarrick, please call the Guardy's confidential tip line at 1-800-666-111. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West.

Heath (56:39)

Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode. If you want to see pictures from this case, head on over to our socials. We're on Instagram, oingwestpodcast. We're also on TikTok and Facebook. Facebook, please make sure that you share this episode as well. We really want to get Annie's information out there because there is still a chance that this case could be solved.

Daphne (57:00)

And I know it's such a tough story. Like it feels like it's all over the place and that we don't really know. And I think it seems like they have at least a pretty good idea of who could have done it and that it might have been Philip, but we really don't know to this day. It might not have been Philip. It might have been a random person outside of the of her apartment or possibly in Enniskerry. Yeah, it's just craziness.

Heath (57:21)

Yes, it is absolutely wild. And if you're interested in hearing more about the vanishing triangle, make sure that you subscribe over on patreon.com goingwestpodcast or you can subscribe on Apple to hear the story of Fiona Sinnett which just might actually happen to be tied to these cases.

Daphne (57:40)

Yeah, check it out. We have like 150 other episodes across our bonus series. So a lot of cases that were not going to talk about on Going West. So check it out. Thank you so much for tuning in and we'll see you guys on Tuesday.

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