John Sweetman

What happened to Elaine O'Hara after she crossed that bridge?

In the days after Elaine O'Hara disappeared, the search continued.

Her family returned again and again to Shangana Park and the surrounding coastline, walking the same ground, checking the same places, hoping they had missed something.

At first, there was an expectation that she would be found quickly.

The last confirmed sighting placed her heading towards the beach.

But nothing was found.

Days passed, then weeks.

Searches extended along the east coast, from Black Rock to Bray, across beaches, cliffs and coastal paths.

Gardaí, volunteers and members of the civil defence combed the area, but there was no sign of Elaine.

No belongings, no trace, and as time went on, the possibility of suicide, unspoken at the beginning, became harder to ignore.

As the first year anniversary approached, Frank let the apartment in Bellarmine Plaza out.

Elaine's family went to Shangana Beach and placed flowers in the sea on the date she had disappeared a year earlier.

It was something they felt they had to do.

Three weeks later, on the evening of September 10, 2013, three local fishermen ran into each other on a bridge over Vartree Reservoir.

They stood there commenting on how low the water was, because that year there had been a heat wave that had caused the water levels to dramatically drop.

In 2012, because of all the bad weather, the water under that bridge had been as high as 20 feet, but on this day it was only 12 to 18 inches.

From the bridge they noticed the sun catching shiny objects under the water.

One of the men got a ratchet strap and a hook and they fished out a bag of items and some rope.

Inside the bag they made an odd discovery.

There were handcuffs, a ball gag, a blindfold and rusty chains with cuffs on each end.