Those that witnessed the incident claimed that Mrs Berry, who was from Stonebridge Lane, had gotten into an altercation with Anastatia Whitmore, a widow from Barrack Street. The argument had originally started on Bride Street, before spilling out onto the main street.

Wexford’s South Main Street in 2014.

At some point during the argument, things turned violent, with one onlooker stating that she saw Mrs Whitmore smashing a mug over Barbara Berry’s head. Another witness told the inquest at Wexford Workhouse that Whitmore had run into a butcher’s shop so that she could snatch a knife from one of the counters.

After Whitmore had emerged from the butcher’s shop, a woman called Margaret Connors attempted to warn Mrs Berry by shouting “Mind the knife!” However, before anyone could intervene, Mrs Whitmore had caught up with Barbara and stabbed her twice in the left breast.

When Barbara Berry fell to the ground, Anastatia Whitmore dropped the knife and fled from the scene. Later, she was arrested on the outskirts of a crowd by a policeman called Sergeant Collopy.

Mrs. Berry was rushed to the workhouse infirmary by Dr. O’ Connor, who transported her in his motor car. Two days later, on Monday, the 25th of March, Barbara passed away.

While in custody, Mrs Whitmore admitted that an argument had broken out over meat and that she had stabbed Mrs Berry with a knife. Ms Whitmore stated that Barbara Berry had ‘tormented her’ and that she did not know what had happened. At one point, she claimed that she believed she was fighting in World War One: ‘I thought I was among the soldiers, and that all the Germans were down on me.’

Although Mrs Whitmore was originally charged with murder – a guilty plea to manslaughter was later accepted. For her crime, she was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

The post The killing of Barbara Berry. appeared first on Wexford Hub.

For several years, an ex-soldier called Henry Carty had been employed by the Reck family – working on their farm as a general labourer.

On the morning of Friday, the 10th of July, Henry Carty arrived at the farm at roughly 8:15AM, fifteen minutes later than usual. That morning, Carty assisted Francis Reck in loading a grubber onto a cart, before heading into the Reck household so that he could eat his breakfast (a daily routine of his).

Later on, Francis called to Carty and asked him to ‘hurry up’, as he wanted to travel to Crossabeg and weigh his pigs. As Francis was heading in the direction of the public road, Carty caught up with him and remained silent. In order to try and break the silence, Francis asked Carty to guess the weight of the pigs – the idea being that they would both make a guess and see who was the closest.

Suddenly, Carty, who had maintained his silence, struck Francis in the face with a heavy object, knocking him to the ground. He then proceeded to kick Francis in the face and strike him on the head. When Francis managed to regain his composure and stumble to his feet, Carty began to throw stones at him.

Over the next 20 minutes or so, the two men continued to struggle with one another, as Francis attempted to retreat back to his house. During the course of the fight, Carty attempted to bite Francis a number of times. Carty continued with his vicious assault until Francis managed to strike him on the head with an ashplant walking stick.

After Carty had retreated, Francis made his way back to his house. Once there, he asked his sister Elizabeth to walk over to their neighbour William Shiggins’ house so that she tell him to call for the An Garda Síochána. At 9:30AM, Elizabeth set off for Shiggins’ house, which was roughly 1/4 of a mile away.

When Elizabeth informed William Shiggins about the assault on her brother, Shiggins grabbed his bicycle and headed off towards the garda barracks in Castlebrige. Elizabeth, in the meantime, left to return back home to her injured brother.

Later that day, when his sister Elizabeth had failed to return home, Francis Reck set out to search for her – heading in the direction of Shiggins’ house. Along the way, he came across the wife of William Shiggins, who informed him that his sister had been found dead on Crory Lane.

Elizabeth Reck’s lifeless body had been discovered about 200 metres from the entrance of her farm by postman Michael Neville and local man Martin Breen. When the two men happened across the lifeless body of a woman lying on the side of the road, they called out and asked her if she was OK. They received no reply.

Although both men personally knew Elizabeth Reck, they were unable to identify her because of the extent of her injuries. According to eye-witnesses, she had been beaten to a pulp. It wasn’t until later that Mrs Shiggins was able to identify her.

While all of this was unfolding, William Shiggins was in Castlebridge, reporting the initial assault on Francis Reck to the garda barracks. Garda Sergeant Keating, who was in the barracks at the time, agreed to return with him to the Reck farm.

As Shiggins and Sergeant Keating were cycling back towards Crory, they they came across a local man called John Murphy. Murphy told the two men that Elizabeth Reck had been found dying on the side of the road and that he was going to fetch a priest for her.

Shiggins and Sergeant Keating continued towards the scene of the crime. Five minutes down the road, they spotted Henry Carty, who was walking in the direction of Castlebridge. His face, hands and clothes were covered in blood.

When Sergeant Keating asked him where he was going, Carty responded: ‘I am going to Castlebridge to give myself up at the barrack. I have done the job.’

Sergeant Keating then proceeded to ask him if he had killed Elizabeth Reck. Carty admitted that he had, saying: ‘She’s as dead as stone in Crory Lane.’

Later, it would be reported that Francis Reck had discovered that his sister’s room had been ransacked and that it appeared as though somebody was searching for money. According to Francis, he and Carty had previously spoken about his wages. Francis also noted that Carty had taken longer-than-usual to finish eating his breakfast that morning.

While Henry Carty was in custody, he told his interrogators that he did not kill Elizabeth Reck ‘willfully’. Moments later, he added: ‘You are going to hang me.’

In November of 1931, a judge found that Carty was “unfit to plead”. Because there is very little information on Carty’s fate following the hearing, we can only presume that he was detained in a psychiatric hospital. Being found “unfit to plead” in those days meant that you were detained at the ‘pleasure’ of the Governor-General of the Irish Free State. i.e. You were detained until it was felt that you were no longer a threat to society.

The post The murder of Elizabeth Reck. appeared first on Wexford Hub.

Cinema Lane in Wexford Town.

The murder investigation was headed by Wexford Chief Superintendent T. Collins and Superintendent George Lawlor, who was head of the Technical Bureau in Dublin. During the first few days of the investigation, it was determined that Mr Hannan had served his last customer at 10.40PM – 10 minutes before members of the An Garda Síochána found him with serious head injuries. His last customer was named as Mr. C. Jones, a Welsh-born shoemaker that had called into Hannan’s confectionary shop to purchase some chewing gum.

Roughly 30 members of the An Garda Síochána took part in a search of the area. During the search, footprints, fingerprints and a 15-inch steel bar were discovered on top of the roof of Mr Hannan’s premises. The steel bar, which was found to have been made in Wexford four years earlier, was polished brightly and tapered at one end. The lack of rust on the bar suggested that it had not been lying on the roof for a lengthy period of time. An inch-by-inch survey of the rooftops around Mr Hannan’s shop was carried out by members of the Technical Bureau, who photographed the fingerprints that they found before sending them back to Dublin.

Gardai believed that his attacker (or attackers) had entered the shop shortly after 10:40PM on Saturday night and that he had been struck 14 times on the head with a blunt heavy object. The commotion of the attack was heard by four men, who were playing cards in a house next door. Upon hearing the sounds, one of the men – a man called William Scanlon, ran outside and knocked on Mr Hannan’s door. After receiving no answer, Mr Scanlon decided to call the gardai.

Investigators were of the opinion that the attackers had been interrupted by the knock at the door and that they had fled the premises by climbing out onto a roof via an upstairs window. They then proceeded to run across rooftops and walls until they found an exit on Henrietta Street.

Roughly ten minutes after being called, the An Garda Síochána arrived on the scene and discovered William Hannan in an unconscious state.

During the investigation, a number of people were questioned, including a number of young men that had left the Wexford area shortly after Mr Hannan’s death. House-to-house inquiries were made and the descriptions of two men that were seen in the area that night were circulated to the public. Local men were also interviewed and their fingerprints were taken.

Over the following days, the descriptions of the two men were also circulated to a number of British towns and cities, as gardai explored the possibility that the perpetrators may have fled from Ireland. Superintendent George Lawlor flew to Birmingham in England to make ‘inquiries’ and in Wexford, the gardai focused on Maudlintown, where they interviewed people and ‘searched the grounds’. Archived articles from The Irish Times newspaper show that the gardai believed that the attackers may have remained in Wexford town.

Interestingly, one of the men at the card game told the An Garda Síochána that he had heard a female’s voice shouting “Don’t do it!” However, the gardai did not believe that a woman could have been involved in the crime because it was felt that a woman could not have climbed across roofs and escaped the area so quickly.

Unfortunately, the investigation into the crime failed to turn up any leads and the steel bar that was found on Hannan’s roof was ruled out as being the murder weapon. In September of 1958, a garda spokesperson told the press that the investigation was still ongoing and that they had no intention of shelving the case: ‘We never give up hope and can always wait patiently for the day when something new will crop up which will lead us to the killer or killers.’

The murder of William Hannan remains unsolved to this very day.

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Pictured above: The Undertaker Bar, which was once called The Cape of Good Hope (locally, it is often referred to as Macken’s Pub). As you can see, the abridged name “The Cape” is still being used on some of the signage.

Bloom, a Jewish man of Polish origin, was a self-described artist that was known throughout Wexford for selling picture frames and photo enlargements. Mary Anne Wildes, who lived on Roche’s Terrace with her widowed mother, had worked for Bloom in the past; watching over his premises while he was away in Dublin.

According to witnesses, Simon Bloom had fallen for Ms Wildes. However, in the days leading up to her murder, she had gotten engaged to another man called Archie Wade. She had also refused Bloom’s request that she return and work for him. Ms Wildes’ friend, Brigid Mary Power, would later tell the court that the victim felt “pestered” by Bloom.

On Saturday, the 7th of May, 1910, John Doyle and Thomas Lewis of Mary Street heard somebody groaning inside the hallway that led to Bloom’s residence. After they opened the letterbox and asked who was there, a voice replied with “Mary Anne”. Shortly afterwards, Bloom arrived back at his residence. While talking to the two men, Bloom attempted to direct the blame away from himself by claiming that he had left a man and a woman inside the apartment.

Upon opening the door, however, Bloom pushed past the injured Mary Anne Wildes and dashed towards the stairs, with the aim of sealing himself inside his apartment.

At this stage, the extent of Mary Anne’s injuries became abundantly clear to the two men, as blood gushed from a wound in her neck, staining her dress and the white rose that she had been wearing. One of the men, Thomas Lewis, picked Mary Anne up in his arms and started to call out for a doctor.

Ms Wildes was placed into a handcart and pushed to the infirmary on Hill Street. As she was being pushed along, bystanders watched on in shock as others attempted to stop the blood by placing handkerchiefs over the wound on her neck.

When Mary Anne Wildes reached the infirmary on Hill Street, she was still conscious, which meant that she was able to name Simon Bloom as her attacker. She also stated that Bloom had asked her to marry him. Although she never told anyone what her answer was, we can only presume that she had said no and that Bloom had flown into a jealous rage.

Once the news of the attack spread throughout the town, an angry mob began to descend on The Bullring. There, they demanded that the door of Bloom’s apartment be broken in. Police constables on the scene managed to contain the crowd until a key for the door was procured from the owner of the building.

When officers entered Bloom’s apartment, they found him sitting in a chair with a wound to his throat and a letter in his hand – an unsuccessful attempt at suicide. A blood-stained razor was taken from the apartment as evidence and Bloom was transported to the infirmary.

The following day, at the infirmary on Hill Street, the deposition of Mary Anne Wildes was taken. According to her statement, Bloom had caused the 3-inch-long wound to her neck after he had attempted to choke her. Simon Bloom, who was present at the deposition, refused to cross-examine Ms Wildes.

Later that day, at 10PM, Mary Anne Wildes died as a result of her injuries.

Simon Bloom was later found guilty of her murder. After serving a number of years for the crime, it is believed that he emigrated to America.

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On Monday, the 13th of October, 1980, a bank robbery occurred in the small market town of Callan in County Kilkenny. During the Troubles, Republican groups such as the Provisional IRA and the INLA raised finances for their campaigns by carrying out bank robberies in the Republic of Ireland. The IRA’s Southern Command main task during this period was to import arms and raise money via bank robberies and other means, such as protection rackets, counterfeiting, kidnapping for ransom and fuel laundering.

As a result of the bank robbery in Callan, County Kilkenny, Garda Seamus Quaid and his colleague Garda Donal Lyttleton were given the task of tracking the movements of a Wexford-based IRA man called Peter Rogers. If the IRA had carried out the robbery, then there was a good chance that Rogers may have been involved.

Eight years prior, in January of 1972, Peter Rogers and six other IRA men had managed to escape from the HMS Maidstone; a prison ship that was moored in Belfast, Northern Ireland. After his escape, Rogers fled to the Republic of Ireland before eventually settling in County Wexford. There, he remained active as a member of the Provisional IRA. He also married and had a son.

On the day of the bank robbery, Garda Seamus Quaid and Garda Donal Lyttleton spent the afternoon attempting to locate Rogers, who they both knew well. However, as the day wore on, Quaid and Lyttleton failed to find any trace of the IRA man or the vegetable van that he owned. Later that evening, after nightfall had arrived, the two men decided to suspend their search and return to the Wexford Garda Station.

However, as they were travelling back towards the station in Wexford Town, they came across a familiar sight. It was Peter Rogers’ van – parked on a dark back road in Cleariestown, close to Ballyconnick Quarry. Although Quaid and Lyttleton probably considered themselves lucky to have stumbled across the van; little did they know that Rogers was armed and that he was in the process of transporting a large amount of liquid explosives.

Unfortunately, because of their familiarity with Rogers, Garda Lyttleton decided to leave his weapon in the car. As they were in the process of searching Rogers’ vegetable van, the IRA man pulled out a gun; knowing that the discovery of explosives would surely lead to a lengthy prison sentence. During the ensuing gun battle, Garda Seamus Quaid was badly injured. Garda Donal Lyttleton, who managed to make it back to his vehicle, returned gunfire and escaped the scene so that he could raise the alarm about his wounded colleague. Rogers, who had been shot in the foot during the gunfight, fled to the house of a nearby neighbour.

Tragically, father-of-four Garda Seamus Quaid, who had arrived in Wexford 22 years prior, died on the scene as a result of his injuries. He was 42 years old.

The murder of Garda Seamus Quaid shocked County Wexford. During the subsequent manhunt, Peter Rogers was discovered hiding out in a neighbour’s house. After being found guilty of capital murder, Rogers was sentenced to death by hanging. Later, this death sentence was commuted to life in prison.

A photograph of Garda Seamus Quaid.

During his stay in Portlaoise prison, Peter Rogers officially left the republican movement. In 1998, he was released from prison under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement; a political development that allowed for the early release of prisoners that were jailed because of paramilitary activities (provided the paramilitary organisation in question maintained a continued ceasefire).

After his release from prison, Rogers sent the Quaid family an apology letter, which was subsequently rejected.

In 2014, Peter Rogers told the BBC that Sinn Féin leaders Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness had ordered him to transport the explosives to Britain. Rogers also said that he was worried about how unstable the liquid explosives were and that he had raised these concerns with Adams and McGuinness during a meeting. According to Rogers, the response from Adams was ‘look Peter, we can’t replace that explosive, you will have to go with what you have and as soon as you can get it across, the better.’ A spokesperson for Sinn Féin denied Rogers’ claims, saying that there was no truth to the allegations.

Other criminal cases:

– The disappearance of Fiona Sinnott.
– The murder of Rebecca French.

The post The murder of Garda Seamus Quaid. appeared first on Wexford Hub.

Just after 4PM, passersby in Codd’s Lane came across the sight of blue Opel Corsa that had been set on fire. By the time the emergency services managed to reach the area, the fire had turned into a blaze. It was only after the fire had been extinguished that the body of Rebecca French was discovered.

A post-mortem examination of Ms French’s body found that she had three fractures on the back of her skull and five broken ribs on the right side of her body. The absence of smoke in her in lungs indicated that she had died before the car had been set on fire. It was the opinion of State Pathologist Professor Marie Cassidy that Rebecca had died as a result of blunt force trauma to the head and that the plastic bag had been used to try and contain the blood from her head injuries.

According to the prosecution, Rebecca had been kicked and stamped on, and the fractures on the back of her head had been caused by heavy blows from a golf club.

Roughly one hour after passersby had come across Rebecca’s burning Opel Corsa, Gardai arrived at the scene of the crime in Ard na Dara. Upon entering the house, they discovered five people – four men and a woman. Two of the men, Ruslanas Minekas and Ricardus Dilys (both Lithuanian nationals), had no trousers or shoes on.

While examining the house, the An Garda Síochána discovered the remnants of cable ties, rubber gloves and pieces of women’s jewellery in the ashes of the fireplace. They also noted that the cover of one seat had been removed and that it had been recently placed into the washing machine. An examination of the legs of some of the stools inside the house revealed speckles of Rebecca’s blood. Golf clubs seized from the house were also found to have Rebecca’s DNA on them.

Although Ruslanas Minekas and Ricardus Dilys were both charged with the murder of Rebecca French, the case soon fell apart because of a legal mistake. When the two men in question were arrested, they were intoxicated, and a doctor was called in to certify whether they were fit for questioning or not. The doctor specified that the two men were intoxicated and that questioning could resume in the “AM” (morning). However, by writing “AM” instead of specifying an exact time, it meant that the precise requirements of the Criminal Justice Amendment Bill 2009 had not been met. This in turn meant that men’s detention past 11.45pm was deemed to be unconstitutional.

As a result, the prosecution team were forced to enter a nolle prosequi (unwilling to pursue).

In December of 2010, the two men, along with Patrick O’Connor and Piotr Pasiak, pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of impeding the prosecution. Although this charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years, Mr Justice Barry White decided to sentence them to ten years in prison, with the final two years suspended. The final two years were suspended because the defendants had entered a guilty plea.

Helen Connors, who had also been charged with impeding the prosecution, was acquitted in June of 2012. During her trial, she provided her own personal account of what had happened on that fateful day. According to Ms Connors, the six of them had been drinking alcohol at the house in Ard na Dara when Rebecca and 26-year-old Ricardus Dilys started to argue with one another. At some point, this argument boiled over into a physical altercation when Dilys began to repeatedly punch Rebecca in the face. After the assault, Rebecca threatened to report Dilys to the Gardai. In response to Ms French’s threat, Dilys, who was described as being ‘mad and paranoid’, called the other three men into the kitchen. At this point, Connors said that the four men were talking amongst themselves and that she could hear one of them saying the words “gloves gloves gloves”.

After their meeting in the kitchen had concluded, the four men returned to the sitting room, where they began their vicious assault on Ms French. As one of the men locked the front door, Dilys kicked Ms French in the face, knocking her to the floor. Ms Connors told the court that Patrick O’Connor sprayed gas in Rebecca’s face before Dily’s started to repeatedly strike her with a golf club. The four men continued to assault Ms French as she lay defenceless on the floor, kicking her and repeatedly hitting her with the golf club in question. During the assault, Patrick O’ Connor instructed Helen Connors to burn the rubber gloves that the men had been wearing.

After the assault had ended, one of the men checked for Rebecca French’s pulse. He couldn’t find one. It was at this stage that Connors realised that Rebecca was dead. Patrick O’ Connor then told the other men that he knew the location of a river that they could dump Rebecca’s body into. Helen Connors, who told the court that she had feared for her life, attempted to clean the scene of the crime while the four men disposed of Ms French’s body.

During the investigation, Helen Connors told gardai that she had delivered ‘two poxy little kicks’ to Rebecca’s chest. “God forgive me. I didn’t want to do it. I was told to kick her. They held me while I kicked her. I thought I’d be killed if I didn’t.”

Ms Connors also admitted to swinging the golf club. During questioning, Ms Connors told gardai that one of the men handed the golf club to her before instructing her to strike Ms French. However, Ms Connors said that she missed Rebecca and that she had hit Piotr Pasiak instead.

In 2015, an inquest into the death of Rebecca French came to a close, with the jury returning a verdict of unlawful killing at the request of County Coroner Dr Sean Nixon. Afterwards, Dr Nixon extended his sympathy to the French family on their ‘very, very sad and very, very tragic loss’. The murder of Rebecca French will be remembered as one of Ireland’s most notorious criminal cases, not just because of the brutal nature of the crime, but also because of how the subsequent murder investigation was handled.

Other criminal cases:

– The disappearance of Fiona Sinnott.
– The murder of Garda Seamus Quaid.

The post The murder of Rebecca French. appeared first on Wexford Hub.

It was Sunday, the 8th of February, 1998. The song Doctor Jones by Aqua was at the top of the singles charts and the movie Titanic was smashing Box Office records. The Winter Olympics had started in Japan and news about a devastating earthquake in Afghanistan was receiving worldwide media attention.

Locally, The Wexford People paper was reporting on the concerns of Wexford-based poultry farmers, who were worried about the spread of the Newcastle virus – a contagious disease that had already wiped out over one million birds in Northern Ireland.

Broadway.

In the small village of Broadway, County Wexford, mother-of-one Fiona Sinnott was sitting with her friends in a local pub called Butlers. According to the book Missing, Presumed by retired detective sergeant Alan Bailey, the 19-year-old spent the evening chatting and joking with her friends about a night-out they had enjoyed the previous Friday.

Fiona’s ex-partner, Sean Carroll, was also at the pub. However, he was sitting at the bar alone, smoking and having a pint.

At some point in the evening, Fiona called her brother and asked him to join her and her friends at Butlers. However, he declined her invitation because he had just returned home from work.

When the night came to a close, Fiona said goodbye to her friends and left to take the short walk back to the house that she had been renting by herself in Ballyhitt. At 12.10AM, she left the bar clutching two packets of peanuts in her hand. Carroll, who was the father of their 11-month-old daughter, decided to accompany her home.

This was the last time that Fiona was seen in public.

Little did her friends know that they would never see her again.

Butlers bar in Broadway, Wexford.

Reported missing.

It wasn’t until the 18th of February, 1998, that Fiona was reported missing. You see, Fiona was a very independent young woman. In the past, she had previously left home to visit Cork for a couple of days. You also have to take into account the fact that she lived 16KM away from her family home and that mobile phones were uncommon at the time.

Before the rise of the handheld device, communication occurred through landline phones, written correspondence and face-to-face conversations. Because of this, it was common for family members not to have contact with one another for a number of days.

Every Friday, Fiona would get a bus into Wexford town so that she could meet up with her family for coffee. When she failed to show up for the second week in a row, her family began to worry.

As the days went by, it began to dawn on everyone that something was wrong.

On the 18th of February, Fiona’s father sounded the alarm when he contacted the Kilmore Garda Station to inform them that his daughter had not been seen in public since the 8th. In response, a full-scale missing persons investigation was launched.

Sean Carroll.

In his book Missing, Presumed, Bailey tells us how Gardai contacted Fiona’s ex-boyfriend after she had been reported missing. Because Fiona Sinnott and Sean Carroll had left Butlers pub during the same time-frame, it was obvious that he would become one of the first people to be contacted by Gardai.

During his conversation with investigators, Carroll told them that he had walked Fiona back to her house in Ballyhitt and that he had spent the night sleeping on her couch. Fiona, who had been complaining about pains in her arm and upper body, had gone straight to bed.

Fiona Sinnott and her daughter Emma.

The next morning, Carroll said that he walked into Fiona’s bedroom and saw that she was awake. According to Carroll, Fiona had told him that she was still in pain and that she intended on hitching a lift to her GP later that day. Because Fiona said that she had no money, Carroll told Gardai that he had given her £3. He then left the house and took a lift from his mother, who was waiting in a car outside. Carroll and his mother then drove back to their family home, which was where Fiona’s daughter Emma had been staying at the time.

This was the last date that anyone would report seeing Fiona alive.

The house that Fiona Sinnott had been renting at the time.

The investigation.

During the investigation into Fiona Sinnott’s disappearance, it was discovered that she did not see a doctor that day. There were no record of her having attended her GP in Broadway. The investigation also failed to find any evidence that she had been thumbing for a lift.

A theory that she had left the country with a Welsh trucker was ruled out. Two nights before Fiona disappeared, she had spent the night with a trucker in his cab. Although the idea of a large truck driving down the narrow roads of Ballyhitt was met with skepticism, Gardai still had to pursue it. After Gardai made contact the trucker in question, he agreed to return to Ireland so that he could be interviewed. His alibi checked out, as he was able to prove to investigators that he had been driving on the continent when Fiona went missing.

During a technical examination of Fiona’s house, Gardai noticed that it had been stripped bare of a number of her personal belongings. It was ‘spotlessly clean’, which was considered to be ‘unusual’ for Fiona.

According to retired detective sergeant Alan Bailey, who served as National Coordinator for the specialist Garda task force Operation TRACE, there was a ‘complete absence of clothing and other personal items indicating that a teenage girl and her eleven-month-old daughter were actually living there.’

Later, one local would recall how he had seen over a dozen black refuse bags lined up outside of the property.

Fiona and her estranged partner Sean Carroll.

Black bags.

As news of Fiona’s disappearance continued to spread, a local farmer approached Gardai with news that he had discovered a number of black bags in the corner of one of his fields. Inside these bags, he had found a number of items and documents that had Fiona’s name written on them.

Unfortunately, the farmer had set fire to these bags as he thought that it was just another case of illegal dumping. The correspondence that he discovered had George’s Street written on them, which was where Fiona had previously rented an apartment with her ex-boyfriend. This address did not correspond with the address that was being listed in the missing person’s appeals.

It was at this point in the investigation that Gardai began to suspect that somebody was trying to mislead them into thinking that Fiona had run away.

The search.

At the time of her disappearance, Fiona’s daughter Emma was about to celebrate her first birthday. According to her friends and family, Fiona was looking forward to this, as well as her sister’s upcoming 21st birthday. She even had plans to go to Waterford so that she could buy her sister a birthday present.

All of this lends credence to the widely-held belief that Fiona did not decide to run away.

The two routes that Fiona could have taken home that night. It is believed that she took the blue route home.

Since day one, detectives have been convinced that Fiona’s body is buried somewhere in the south of County Wexford. Fiona’s family are also of the same opinion:

I believe she’s not far. She’s closer than what we might think. You could be driving by her on the road all the time.

In June of 1998, the nearby lake in Lady’s Island was drained, with Gardaí keeping a 24-hour floodlit watch. The operation lasted a month and the entire lake was searched. However, no trace of Fiona was found.

Searches at other lakes and suggested burial sites also failed to turn up anything.

In 2001, a man that was suspected of having been involved in the disposal of Fiona’s body died from a suspected drug overdose. According to Bailey’s book, Missing, Presumed., the man in question had been finding it increasingly difficult to live with the guilt of having been involved. However, he could not provide the An Garda Síochána with an anonymous tip-off because only three people knew about the exact location of her whereabouts. Telling somebody, he said, would be tantamount to signing his own death warrant.

A photograph of Fiona holding her daughter.

Arrests.

On the 16th of September, 2005, Gardai announced that they were now treating the case as a murder investigation. Earlier that day, at around 7AM, the prime suspect in the murder of Fiona Sinnott was arrested at his home and detained under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act.

In the days leading up to his arrest, five other people had been detained by Gardai on suspicion of withholding information.

Over the course of three days, six people in total were arrested: The prime suspect, the suspect’s mother, his sister, his sister’s boyfriend, his ex-girlfriend and a male friend.

After questioning, they were released and files outlining their suspected involvement in Fiona’s disappearance were submitted to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

In the end, no charges were filed.

These arrests came on the back of ‘vital information’ that Gardai received from a woman that was known to the suspect.

Millpond Cross.

During the investigation, one person came forward to say that they had heard a woman screaming in the Millpond Cross area on the night that Fiona had left Butlers pub. Another motorist stated they had seen a couple who appeared to be arguing with one another at the entrance of a quarry.

These reports have never been proven. Nor have they ever been successfully linked to Fiona’s disappearance.

There is a firmly-held belief that a number of people in the Wexford area know what happened to Fiona. According to Bailey, there have been persistent rumours that local youths were involved in the cover-up of her murder.

Reports have also suggested that people have maintained their silence because they fear the suspect in question.

Other Information.

Information and updates about the ongoing investigation into Fiona’s disappearance:

Serial killer.

Fiona’s case is often mentioned whenever the topic of “Ireland’s vanishing triangle” is brought up. The term itself refers to the disappearances of a number of women during the 1990s; all of which occurred in the same geographical region in Ireland.

These include Fiona Sinnott, Fiona Pender, Annie McCarrick, Eva Brennan, Imelda Keenan, JoJo Dollard, Ciara Breen and Deirdre Jacob.

It has been theorized that a serial killer may have been involved in some of the disappearances. However, the suspect in Fiona’s case is a man that was well-known to her.

Recommendations.

In Bailey’s book, he recalls how Operation TRACE made a number of recommendations to Wexford Gardai. These recommendations outlined what actions that should be taken against those involved in Fiona’s case.

In the mid-2000s, it came to light that these recommendations were never implemented.

Previous assaults.

After her disappearance, it came to light that Fiona had suffered a number of brutal assaults at the hands of an ex-boyfriend. On more than one occasion, she was hospitalised as a result of these attacks. However, Fiona discharged herself and did not press charges.

The first time that she was brought to Wexford General Hospital, it was because she had suffered bruising to her face. On another occasion, she had bite marks on her legs and had been beaten around the head and back.

In 1996, Gardai were called to a house close to Rosslare Harbour. When they arrived on the scene, Gardai found Fiona being comforted on the street by another woman. Inside the house, they came across the man who had allegedly threatened her with a knife. He had been drinking and was asleep on the couch. Fiona collected her belongings and left. No charges were pressed.

Gardai also heard details of another brutal assault, which Fiona had told a number of people about. According to Gardai, it was a “very serious attack” that would have seen the perpetrator facing up to life imprisonment.

Fiona’s daughter.

The Sinnott family have been unsuccessful in their attempts to make contact with Fiona’s daughter. Emma, who is now in her twenties, remained in the care of her father’s family after Fiona disappeared.

Somebody knows something.

In an interview with the Irish Examiner, Fiona’s family expressed their belief that two people besides the main suspect had information about her whereabouts. However, these people are believed to be fearful of him.

They also expressed their belief that Fiona’s body is somewhere in County Wexford.

The weather that night.

Small details like the weather may seem insignificant. However, the rain, wind and temperature can all play a huge part in the decisions we make. There is also the small and hopeful chance that these kind of details will jog someone’s memory of that Sunday.

On Sunday, the 8th of February, 1998, BBC weatherman John Kettley started his forecast by pointing out how exceptionally mild it was going to be:

We really are going to see a taste of Spring throughout the British Isles, with temperatures way above where they ought to be for this time of the year.

That February had started off cold. However, by Sunday the 8th, the weather had started to change for the better. According to historical data from the Wexford Wildlife Reserve, Saturday the 7th had seen minimum temperatures of 2.8C. By Monday the 9th, those minimum temperatures had risen to 9.6C.

As Kettley pointed out in his forecast, there were strong southwesterly winds gusting up from the Atlantic that week. These winds would have been stronger than usual and there is a chance that they may have influenced what route Fiona decided to take home. If Fiona took the southerly route home, she would have been walking against these strong winds. However, if she took the northerly route, as her family believe she did, then the wind would have been behind her for most of the journey.

Fiona’s father passes away.

Sadly, Fiona’s father Pat passed away in 2004, having never discovered what had happened to his daughter. His family say that he died of a broken heart. Before his death, he used to wait at the front gate in the hope that she would one day return home. On his death bed, he told his sons:

Don’t stop searching for her. Find her.

Spat at.

In January of 2006, The Sunday Mirror reported that Fiona’s family were spat at by a man during a search for her body. The man in question also laughed at her grieving relatives as they awaited the results of the dig. The operation had been carried out at a field in Killinick.

Psychic.

In July of 2006, Gardai carried out a search of a lane outside of St David’s Church in Mulrankin. The search, which failed to find anything, came about after the site was identified by a clairvoyant. The clairvoyant had stated that Fiona was bludgeoned to death and that her body was buried under a septic tank.

Skull.

A human skull was found in Katt’s Strand in 2007. However, investigators soon learned that the skull belonged to an older and smaller woman.

Stolen memorial plaque.

On the 12th of September, 2008, a memorial plaque for Fiona was stolen from a cemetery in Our Lady’s Island in County Wexford. The marble plaque, which had been cemented into the wall, was removed the night before it was due to be unveiled. In his book, retired detective sergeant Alan Bailey says that it was ‘almost certainly the case’ that the suspect in Fiona’s disappearance was somehow involved with the removal of the plaque.

Digs.

In April of 2015, what was believed to be human hair was discovered at a dig site in County Wexford. DNA testing would later disprove this. In August of 2015, Fiona’s family revealed that they had identified two sites in the South East and that they were waiting on the go-ahead from Operation Trace to search them. These digs have been carried out with the help of Joe Blake from Trace Missing Persons Ireland, who uses specially-trained cadaver dogs to search for forensic evidence and human remains.

Gardaí renew their appeal.

In April of 2017, Gardaí renewed their appeal for help locating Fiona. A fresh appeal was made on RTE’s television show Crimecall. It was also revealed that Gardaí were due to carry out a fresh forensic examination of Fiona’s home in Ballyhitt. According to Dr Dorothy Ramsbottom, recent advances in technology allow investigators to locate and generate DNA profiles from stains.

Fiona’s sister passes away.

In June of 2017, Fiona’s sister Caroline Sinnott passed away after a short illness. She was 47 years of age. Caroline never gave up looking for her younger sister and she had frequently appealed to the public for new information.

Chief suspect complicates future extradition bids.

In December of 2017, The Irish Sun reported that the chief suspect in Fiona’s murder had ‘fled’ to another country in an attempt to complicate any future extradition bids. The newspaper reported that the suspect had been previously living in the UK and in Spain and that he had recently moved to another country. The newspaper did not name the country that he had moved to.

Documentary.

In July of 2018, it was announced that TV3 would be airing a documentary about the missing Wexford woman. The documentary, which is called Getting Away with Murder, is expected to air in Autumn, 2018.

If you have information about the disappearance of Fiona Sinnott, please contact any Garda Station or phone the Garda Confidential Phoneline on 1800 666111.

References: Bailey, Alan (2014-12-01). Missing, Presumed. Liberties Press.

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