John Sweetman

There was no trace of Elaine.

As the weather began to turn and rain rolled in, the O'Haras were joined by friends and Gardaí as well as members of the civil defence.

A Garda helicopter went up to search the cliffs and sea with heat-seeking cameras, but it wasn't long before the weather forced it to return.

As the light faded, hopes of finding Elaine that night started to fade with it.

Gardaí examined Elaine's car and found that it had already been flagged the previous day after being seen parked in an unusual location on two separate occasions.

A check confirmed it was registered to Elaine O'Hara, but as she had not yet been reported missing, it did not raise any immediate concern.

When the sun set over Shangana Park, the family and the Gardaí went to Elaine's apartment to see if they could find any more information.

Elaine's brother, John, found a HP laptop that was different to Elaine's usual computer.

He opened it and found it was password protected, so he suggested he would take it home with him and try to unlock it.

John also found two printed pictures of hunting knives from the Active Hunting Ireland's website and a printout of a map to the Pucks Castle golf course in Rathmichael.

The printouts were dated July 11, 2012, just a day before Elaine checked herself into Edmondsbury Hospital.

John took notice of the date too because a few weeks earlier he'd asked Elaine for a lift to that very golf course and she had told him she didn't know where it was.

Elaine also had a notebook where she'd written down the website, fetlife.com.

Her brother pulled out his phone and looked up the site, then showed it to his sister Anne and the Garda in the apartment.

It was a fetish site, a place built around bondage and control.

In a locker by the bedside, Gardie found two heavy metal chains.

In the living room, they found a black PVC bodysuit and rope.

These weren't things her family recognised.

This wasn't a side of Elaine they knew existed.

The family didn't believe Elaine had a boyfriend, but Frank remembered that around four years earlier she had told him she was seeing a man, an architect he thought she said, and he was shocked when she told him he was married and that he tied her up and performed sordid acts.