Chapter 1: What warning is given to listeners before the episode begins?
A quick warning before we begin. This series contains descriptions of sexual violence and could be upsetting for some people, so please keep this in mind when listening. And if you've any knowledge of the actions of John Shaw and Geoffrey Evans, please email us. Many of the Gardaí who worked on this case have passed on.
The Gardaí we have spoken to for this series are all retired about 20 years.
It's a long time ago.
These Gardaí didn't have to go looking for notes to jog their memories.
Would you talk to this Gardaí? Just to record a bit of it. For RTÉ, they're doing a podcast on it. Can she call up to you now?
Some of them, when we knocked on their door that day, recalled it instantly.
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Chapter 2: How did the Gardaí respond to the disappearance of Mary Duffy?
These events were just so out of the ordinary in the Ireland of 1976.
It was the talk of the country at the time.
It was never heard of before and it was an awful crime at the time.
Thursday evening, the 23rd of September 1976, Mary Duffy's family were beginning to go through a similar experience to the one Elizabeth's family had been going through for almost a month now.
They had no mercy, no mercy for Elizabeth, no mercy for Mary Duffy.
Nobody else can understand and I don't expect anybody to understand. You have to be through this to know, to understand, to realise the pain.
I'm Ros Purcell from RTE Documentary on One. This is Stolen Sister, Episode 4, Confessions. While the whole Castlebar community in Mayo went into shock and a huge search began, Mary was being held captive in a forest 80 kilometres away by John Shaw and Geoffrey Evans.
It was dark. It was about 9 o'clock p.m. I went into a tent in the trees in about 100 yards.
The statements and words of Sean Evans are recreated here using the voice of actors.
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Chapter 3: What shocking details emerge about the abduction of Mary Duffy?
Just they were crazy about one another. Damien went to, I think, one of these diviners and said, look, expect the worst. She's in water now.
On Sunday, the 26th of September, just days after they had abducted Mary Duffy, Sean Evans drove into Galway City at night.
There was a disco in Galway in the Ocean Wave Hotel in Salt Hill. It was a cabaret place, a very popular place at the time.
Like all Gardaí nationwide, Garda Jim Boland and PJ Corcoran in Galway City were looking for the car Sean Evans were last reported driving.
There was a message in the station to keep a lookout for a black Ford Cortina Mark II car. We were keeping an eye out for it. I was the driver of the car and PJ was the observer. We were driving out the prom on a Sunday night at about approximately 11 o'clock. PJ was watching the cars on the left. I was watching the cars on the right. And we were driving slowly.
And we spotted the car parked on the left-hand side of the road. Two fellas went into the car.
Garda Boland and Corcoran had just found the two most wanted men in Ireland at that time and they called for Garda back up.
I spoke over the radio and I said, ask the Galway car to come to Salt Hill as quick as they can. The two men started up the car, I put on the headlights, I was driving slowly and... And the Galway car said, we're behind you now. I said, when I stop, you catch the passenger and I will catch the driver. And we did.
One month after they'd been released from prison, a month in which they had managed to devastate so many lives, John Shaw and Geoffrey Evans had finally been caught.
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Chapter 4: How were John Shaw and Geoffrey Evans apprehended?
Shaw then related what happened at British Bay, Castle Bar and Lough Ina, that he and Geoffrey Evans abducted, raped and murdered both Elizabeth and Mary. In a nearby room, around the same time, Gardaí were continuing to ask Evans the same question.
Where is Mary Duffy now? We know you were involved. Where is she? So that was it. Until eventually he says... I'll tell the truth.
They asked him while she's still alive. Evans shook his head.
She's in a lake.
The lake was Lough Iona in Connemara.
I'll draw a sketch. Get me a pen and paper. Cautioned him. Did he want to make a statement? He didn't have to make it, so he was agreeable to that. And he went through the whole thing.
Over the next couple of hours, Evans gave a detailed statement, including that John Shaw murdered Elizabeth.
Statement of Geoffrey Evans. Date of birth, 12th of June, 1945. I asked him what was wrong, and he told me that the girl was dead. I didn't believe him. So I walked down the lane and into the trees, seeing the girl lying there. She had all her clothes on, slacks, T-shirt. I went back to John at the car and asked him what had happened.
The statements given by Sean Evans were very similar in their detail, except when it came to the actual killing of both Elizabeth and Mary. Both deflected responsibility to the other man, contradicting each other.
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