American Annie McCarrick was living in Ireland at the time she dissapeared now cops say she was murdered.
Could a 30-year-old cold case finally be on its way to being solved?
Investigators in Ireland reportedly believe that two brothers are behind the killing of American Annie McCarrick, who disappeared in 1993. Investigators are now focused on the brothers, who are now being treated as suspects, in a bid to determine if there were any discrepancies or shortcomings in the information they gave to detectives when they were first interviewed, according to the Irish Times.
A former sergeant with An Garda Síochána, Ireland’s national police, which is investigating the cold case of McCarrick, said the two brothers previously provided him with an alibi. “These brothers were questioned before, but they had an alibi, so something has changed. They are already known to the investigation team,” retired detective Alan Bailey, who played a key role in the investigation, told the Irish Examiner.
The brothers are from Dublin, according to Irish Examiner. The men no longer live in the same region as they did when McCarrick vanished, according to Irish Times.
Earlier this year, the investigation into McCarrick's fate was reclassified from a missing person case to a murder case, which meant additional resources, including technical analysis and forensics, could be dedicated to helping solve the decades-old mystery, the Gardaí told the Irish Times.
“I am glad to see the case is now a murder case; it is something I had called for a long time. It gives the Gardaí more powers and it also shows the cold case unit don’t give up on things, even when people get frustrated that it’s not happening quick enough,” Bailey told the Irish Examiner.
McCarrick moved to Ireland in 1987 and began studying in Dublin. She returned to the U.S. in 1990 for her master’s degree, but in 1993, returned to live full-time in Ireland.
McCarrick was 26 when she went missing. She was last seen taking a bus to Enniskerry, Co. Wicklow, on March 26, 1993, just two months after permanently moving to the country. She told a friend she planned to go to the Wicklow Mountains for the day.
Investigators at the time had the theory that she visited Johnnie Fox’s pub in Dublin. A woman matching her description was seen with an unidentified man wearing a waxed jacket, according to reports.
McCarrick's mother, Nancy, said she no longer believes her daughter to be alive. "I did (have hope) for a very, very, very long time but not after 30 years," she told RTE in March. "I would just love to be able to find her."
McCarrick’s father, John, died in 2009 without ever knowing what happened to his daughter.
