Ros Purcell

Not long after Elizabeth came back from Saint-Tropez in early August 1976, John Shaw was released from prison in Dublin.

He was immediately arrested on foot of an extradition warrant from UK police charges, which included the rape of two women and a 15-year-old girl in Manchester.

But, and this is unbelievable, Shaw claimed he wasn't the same person named in the extradition warrant.

And so the judge released him on bail as Gardie set out to prove his identity.

And three weeks later, the exact same thing happened to his accomplice, Jeffrey Evans.

And just like that, they were both free.

1976 was one of the hottest summers on record in Ireland.

And Elizabeth's sister, Bernie, still remembers the thrill of Ireland's heatwave.

Best summer we'd had for years.

And every weekend was a sunny weekend.

Everybody wanted to go to a beach.

Sun was still shining at the end of August, when Elizabeth made plans for the last Saturday night of the summer.

I've been a friend of Damien Bush since we were in Bolton Street College in 1970.

These words are from the statement Damien's friend, Joe McCoy, gave as part of Elizabeth's murder investigation, read by an actor.

About Wednesday the 26th of August 1976 I rang Damien from work and he told me that his sister Mella had a friend with a caravan in British Bay and he invited my girlfriend and myself down to the caravan for a ballad session.

We arranged to meet at the house

This was what Elizabeth had planned for that Saturday, a night away with friends to mark the end of a brilliant summer.

British Bay is in County Wicklow, just an hour south of Dublin City and has five kilometres of soft sandy beach and for years it's been a spot for Dubliners to skate the city when the sun is shining.

Bernie was 17 and that Saturday lives in her mind still.

Elizabeth was getting ready to go.