The eighty miles surrounding Dublin, Ireland, hold a chilling mystery. Between 1993 and 1998, at least six women disappeared in the area, and their cases remain unsolved. Police investigations have targeted at least one suspect, but still no one has been charged. The question remains: is a serial killer responsible for these disappearances? Keep up with us on Instagram @serialkillerspodcast! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
How does confirmation bias affect police investigations?
Presumably that's because she was 39 years old, while the rest of the victims were younger, either teenagers or in their 20s. But that's not certain. Even the detectives assigned to Operation Trace don't know why some missing women are included and others aren't. The women who do make the cut are all relatively young, white, female, and conventionally attractive.
Each one went missing within an 80-mile radius of Dublin between 1993 and 1998. None of them had any known reason why they'd want to run away. And that's it. They don't share a hair or eye color. Some disappeared off the street, others from their homes. Some went missing at night, some during the day. One of the victims was seven months pregnant.
There isn't much to go off of, but there's enough for Operation Trace to develop some theories. And unlike some earlier investigations, they believe foul play definitely occurred, and they identify some persons of interest. One of them is a carpenter named Larry Murphy. At the time of the disappearances, he was in his 30s. He was clean-cut, married, and to all appearances, an ordinary guy.
In 1993, when Annie McCarrick went missing, he lived in Enniscarry, the same town where she presumably visited right before she disappeared. He also worked for Deidre Jacobs' grandmother, and a man fitting his description was filmed on a CCTV camera at the bank Deidre visited the day she went missing.
News reports also say he's been linked to JoJo Dullard's case, although it's not clear exactly how. Now, Ireland is a small country. At the time of the disappearances, the population was around 3.5 million. It could be a coincidence that Murphy lived near one victim and seemingly knew two others. But in February 2000, Larry Murphy starts looking a lot more suspicious.
He apparently starts stalking a young woman whose identity hasn't been made public. One day, he drives to her workplace, which is inside the vanishing triangle. He parks near her usual spot, and when she walks past his car, he grabs her, beats her, and forces her into his trunk. Then he drives into the Wicklow Mountains, sexually assaults her, and attempts to murder her.
He is interrupted by a pair of hunters who stumble upon the scene and rescue the young woman. Murphy is sentenced to 15 years in prison. At some point, reporters start drawing connections. The abduction feels eerily similar to the Vanishing Triangle cases. If he snatched this victim right off the street, maybe he did the same to Annie, Jojo, Deirdre, and or the others.
Even more alarming, while he's incarcerated, at least two other inmates reportedly hear him bragging about getting away with murder. Eventually, the guardie named Larry a person of interest in all the Operation Trace disappearances, plus a couple more. At one point, they invite FBI profilers from the US to examine the evidence. The agents agree that Murphy fits the profile of a serial killer.
To them, the efficiency with which he kidnapped that young woman suggests he'd done something like it before. But still, it's only circumstantial evidence. The guardie can't convict Murphy on the inmate's testimony or the FBI's profile. They don't have concrete proof he had anything to do with the Vanishing Triangle cases. They never arrest Murphy or press charges due to lack of evidence.
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