Friend of murdered Emer O'Loughlin says she was let down ‘even in death'

Sunday World

22-04-2025

'many mistakes' |
'I still feel like, what the hell? How was he let get away? What was going on?'
Twenty years on from the murder of her 23-year-old friend, the traumatic memories of the violence of her death in a burned-out mobile home have softened for Aoife Kyne into recollections of the feisty, dog-mad Clare girl she met in art class.
'I just think of her in a happier way than initially after she died, when it was just like disbelief, anger, and sadness. It's just important to remember Emer, how she was and how she lived, and I do.
'Every time I see daffodils, I think of her, and I smile.'
Speaking on the Crime World podcast series, Evil Eye, Aoife explains that much of Emer's art portfolio was filled with drawings of the yellow flowers.
The two met in 2004 at a year-long PLC-style college course in Galway preparing students for art college, when Aoife was a 19-year-old student fresh out of secondary school.
Emer O'Loughlin's remains were found in the caravan belonging to John Griffin who has disappeared
Emer, a few years older than most of the class, stood out. 'For someone so small, she was very outspoken — not afraid to voice an opinion and treated everyone the same. She was just a very likeable person.
'She was feisty, hardworking, good fun, not afraid to speak her mind, almost like no filter. She was really funny without meaning to be. She was full of life,' she said, remembering how they bonded over their love of dogs and shared rural background.
'She'd come into the classroom, and she'd always have something to say.'
Aoife has fond memories of those arty classmates at the start of their adult lives. 'It was a great year, and we had great fun.' Read more
In contrast to many of her peers, Emer eschewed Galway city's lively student social life and commuted to class in a car from the mobile home she shared with her boyfriend, Shane, on land belonging to his family.
She recalled her friend, who had spent time travelling the world, seemed 'mad about' her boyfriend. 'She spoke about him a lot, they seemed to have a nice life together.'
In April 2005, close to the end of their school year, the fun-loving art class was left reeling when students were told remains of their classmate were thought to have been discovered in a burnt-out caravan belonging to her neighbour, John Griffin, in Ballybornagh, Co Clare.
On the day she was murdered, Emer had been preparing to travel to college but is reported to have called to Griffin's mobile home, on a nearby patch of land, to charge her phone as her electricity wasn't working.
John Griffin
On that Friday, the class had the day off as Pope John Paul II had died, but Aoife was expecting Emer to come into the college to do some extra work on their portfolios. When she didn't turn up, Aoife remembers texting her to tell her she had left paint she had borrowed from Emer for her in the college, but received no reply.
Now she wonders if her vibrant, nature-loving friend was still alive when the text pinged into her phone. The following Monday, she remembers being hit by a subdued silence when she walked into their normally buzzing classroom. As she went to start a conversation with a classmate, he asked: 'Did you not hear about Emer?'
He told her Emer was missing and there had been the discovery of a body at the scene of a fire. 'I just remember sitting down and [thinking] it can't be Emer, there has to an explanation…..this can't really be happening. It was just really shocking.'
The remains were so badly damaged that forensic experts were initially unable to establish whether they were male or female. The injuries to her body were only discovered on a second postmortem, five years later, when her body was exhumed.
The family has only recently been told Emer was decapitated before she died, a fact they want made public as they continue to seek justice.
In the days after the murder, an agitated Griffin was tracked down to Dún Aonghasa fort on Inis Mór where he pelted stones at gardai. After a stand-off, he was overpowered and subsequently placed in psychiatric care but checked himself out days later.
On April 18, 10 days after the murder, he is believed to have staged his suicide, leaving his clothes folded at the edge of a cliff on the island.
After her death, Aoife initially presumed her friend's death must have been an accident. 'I can't remember when I began to realise that it was so sinister. Then it came out on the news.'
Later, Aoife heard rumours that Emer was afraid of Griffin, but never remembered his name cropping up in their conversations. 'I never heard about him until the news. It's still as puzzling to me now as it was back then.'
When reports emerged of Griffin's arrest and later his supposed disappearance, she felt anger.
'There's a sense that even in death, Emer was just being violated or disrespected, or that he was being protected, and she wasn't.'
Before the classmates broke up in 2005, Emer's daffodil artwork was displayed as part of their end-of-year exhibition. For the grieving students, it was their way of reclaiming her from the darkness surrounding her death.
'She [died] so needlessly and just so horribly', said Aoife, 'It was so negative when she was such a bubbly, positive, full of life [person]. More than so many other people, she would want to be here. She really lived life and to think that her life is just extinguished...'
Two decades later, the shock endures.
'The disbelief back then at what had happened after Emer died is still there. I still feel like, what the hell? How was he let get away? What was going on?
'It's just awful that there just doesn't seem to be any answers, and so many mistakes. You just feel like she was let down even in death, and continues to be.'
n Evil Eye can be found wherever you get your podcasts.