Cadavar dog arrives at Annie McCarrick dig site as murder case cops probe if American visited house before disappearance
A CADAVER dog has arrived onto the site of a house where a major search for Annie McCarrick's remains is ongoing as a man is still being questioned on suspicion of murder.
Garda technical and forensic
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A cadaver dog has arrived onto the site of the house in Clondalkin
Credit: Gary Ashe
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The search is expected to last for a number of days
Credit: Garrett White - Commissioned by The Sun Dublin
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Tragic Annie McCarrick has been missing for over 30 years
Credit: Handout
A digger, kango hammer, consaw and other power tools are being used on site today to excavate the house and gardens.
Shortly after 11am, a cadaver dog - used to pick up and track the scent of human remains - was brought in.
The Irish Sun understands it has been
The property, which has undergone extensive renovations over the years, has been sealed off since yesterday morning.
READ MORE ON ANNIE
However, gardai stressed its current occupiers 'are not connected in any way' to the case.
Officers are probing if Annie visited the house before she vanished in 1993.
The search there is expected to last a number of days.
A 62-year-old man
MOST READ ON THE IRISH SUN
We have learned that the suspect — who was known to Annie — is being quizzed over more than five separate alibis which the
Gardai 'committed to uncovering the truth' of Annie McCarrick's murder and disappearance
He must be charged or released by later on today.
Gardai are also probing allegations the suspect
It is understood the suspect denies any involvement in her disappearance.
American Annie was
Despite extensive investigations, her body has never been found, nor have any definitive answers.
After the case was upgraded to murder two years ago, the gardai focused on two men who sources say were among her many friends.
Both have assisted with inquiries over the years, with one of them interviewed abroad in recent times.
GARDAI PROBING FALSE ALIBIS
The second man was the suspect lifted between yesterday morning when detectives from Irishtown Garda Station landed at his home, which is outside Dublin.
Gardai conducted what sources say was a 'cursory search' of the property, but it was not invasive.
The suspect is a married man who has lived a normal life since.
A source told The Irish Sun: 'Gardai are focusing on inconsistencies and discrepancies in the accounts previously given to them by this man."
The source revealed they are probing whether false alibis may have been created at the time.
They added: 'There is fresh information in terms of what they are focusing on regarding what cropped up during the reviews of the case and developments with speaking to others too.
"This man would have been known to Annie at the time of her disappearance. He hasn't lived in Dublin for some time.'
HUGE SEARCH OP
The major arrest and search op is being led by an investigation team from the DMR South Central Division, Serious Crime Unit based at Irishtown Garda Station under the direction of a senior investigating officer.
It also has the assistance of the Serious Crime Review Team, aka the Cold Case unit, along with the Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation.
A temporary restricted airspace has been put in place by the Irish Aviation Authority over the search, banning drones from flying overhead.
Born on March 21, 1967, Annie was 26 years old at the time of her disappearance.
Originally from New York in the US, she was an only child of Nancy and John, who died in 2009 without any answers.
My fondest wish would just be to find out what happened to her. To be able to have a grave to visit."
Nancy McCarrick
As a teenager, Annie visited Ireland on a school trip and fell in love with the country and way of life.
When she returned back to the US, she told her parents of her intention to return here to live.
She did and in the 1980s, she completed her third level studies at St Patrick's College, Drumcondra and at St Patrick's College, Maynooth before returning to New York in 1991.
There she hit the books once more at Stoney Brook University, New York.
She moved back to Dublin permanently on January 4, 1993, and settled into rental accommodation at St Catherine's Court, Sandymount, Dublin 4.
FINAL MOVEMENTS
On Friday, March 26 of that year, almost four months later, Annie spoke to her two other flatmates before they both headed off home for the weekend.
She made arrangements with other friends inviting them to her apartment for dinner the following day.
But when they turned up that evening, she was not there.
On Sunday, March 28, her friends began to worry as they discovered she had not turned up to work all weekend.
That evening, her pals discovered her groceries — that had been purchased by Annie on the Friday morning in Quinnsworth on Sandymount Road — had been left unpacked in shopping bags in her home.
A receipt confirmed the date and time of purchase as 26/03/1993 at 11.02am, and this is the last confirmed activity of Annie.
She was reported missing by a friend at Irishtown Garda Station on the evening of Sunday, March 28, 1993.
FAMILY'S PAIN
Tragically, Annie's mother Nancy had been due to meet up with her doting daughter on March 30 that year, just four days after the disappearance.
Nancy travelled over but her intended holiday turned into a nightmare.
Speaking in 2023, Nancy, who is in her 80s now, said: 'She was funny. Yes, she was very reliable.
"She was conscientious. She wasn't fearful. She couldn't find fault with Ireland.
'It makes a huge difference to hear her case has been upgraded to a murder investigation.
"You never know, it might prompt someone to come forward after all these years. As for justice or retribution, I have no interest in it at all.
"My fondest wish would just be to find out what happened to her. To be able to have a grave to visit.'
Gardai said that they will continue to keep the family of Annie fully updated in relation to the investigation and have been fully apprised of the developments.
A spokesman said: 'An Garda Siochana appeals to anyone with information, no matter how small or insignificant that they might believe it to be, to contact the investigation team.
'Any information will be welcomed by the investigation team, and will be treated in the strictest confidence.
The investigation team can be contacted at Irishtown Garda Station on 01 666 9600 or anyone who wishes to provide information confidentially should contact the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111.'
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The property has been sealed off since yesterday morning
Credit: Garrett White - Commissioned by The Sun Dublin
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The property has undergone extensive renovations over the years
Credit: Garrett White - Commissioned by The Sun Dublin
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Annie was last seen alive on March 26, 1993 in Sandymount in south Dublin
Credit: RollingNews.ie
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Annie McCarrick's mother Nancy is used to waiting. She has been waiting for 32 years to find out where her only daughter's remains may be buried. When she received a 3am phone call on Thursday from the Garda team investigating her daughter's murder, it brought a new level of emotional intensity to the family's wait for answers. A man who knew Annie McCarrick had been arrested on suspicion of her murder . Fortunately, Nancy McCarrick's younger sister, Maureen Covell, was staying with her when the gardaí called. She has supported Ms McCarrick since 1993. READ MORE Annie McCarrick was nine years younger than Ms Covell, who is now 67. Both women were like best friends and spent lots of time together. From early on Thursday morning until the suspect was released without charge on Friday afternoon, an extended Irish-American family living in the Long Island area of New York had their fingers crossed. After all, this was the first arrest in a case whose narrative has changed completely since a new team of Garda investigators were appointed. 'Naturally, we were full of hope,' said Ms Covell. 'At last, it seemed there would be answers. There have been so many attempts over the decades to solve this case but there had never been any conclusive or definitive answers.' It was a case of disappointment once again for the family on Friday, as the man was released without charge . A search and excavation at a house in Clondalkin, Dublin, which was linked to him, is ongoing. Speaking to The Irish Times from her home in Long Island, Ms Covell said: 'All of us are quite disappointed as we were hopeful that some results would come of this arrest and interrogation. It is important to say that we haven't given up all hope as it seems the gardaí are getting close. We cautiously look forward to hearing if there are any findings with regards to the excavation. 'We appreciate the continued efforts of the gardaí as they follow some very recent leads.' She added that the family continues to hope for 'closure and answers along with a possible conviction to this 32-year- old nightmare'. Ms Covell said the family had been left deeply frustrated by elements of the original Garda team's approach to the investigation. 'Unlike my dear sister, who has remained so graceful and stoic throughout this ordeal, I still find it very frustrating that all the faxes our family and friends sent to the gardaí after Annie's disappearance about significant issues in her personal life were ignored at the time,' she said.
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A US Army spokesman said the army had no record of Mr Kelley serving with it but noted that soldiers' records are automatically moved to the National Archives and Records Administration when they have left the army for more than 15 years. This agency has been contacted by The Irish Times for details of his military service. [ Garda starts reviews of Tina Satchwell and Michael Gaine murder inquiries Opens in new window ] During the interview, Mr Kelley spoke about his upbringing in Maine with his mother, Janice Kelley, who had attended Martin Luther King's Jobs and Freedom March to Washington in 1963 when he made his famous 'I have a dream' speech. Mr Kelley, a musician who busks regularly on the streets of Tralee, also spoke about how his mother had lived in the East Village in New York in the early 1960s and once played guitar with Joan Baez. He also saw Bob Dylan and other prominent figures of the US folk boom of the time in the coffee shops of Greenwich Village, he said. Michael Kelley busking on the street in Tralee, Co Kerry. Photograph: Domnick Walsh Among the many figures from the counterculture that his mother knew was Walter Bowart, editor of the East Village Other, a radical underground newspaper. In the interview, Mr Kelley spoke in detail about the writing of Bowart on mind control programmes developed by the Central Intelligence Agency, the US spy agency, and who alleged that it was the CIA that developed the drug LSD and introduced it in the counterculture movement as a means of trying to control people. On his eight years in Ireland, Mr Kelley said that when he could not secure asylum, he moved to Kerry and began living in the Killarney National Park where he built himself a hut. They found my camp and told me I had to leave, that I couldn't live in the national park – they were out shooting deer, and they had guns – so I wasn't going to argue with them — Michael Kelley 'I made it from logs and tarpaulin – it was deep in the woods, the other side of the lake and I lived there. I used to go into Killarney every three or four days in the middle of the night to search in dumpsters. You get a lot of food thrown way in a tourist town like Killarney,' he said. Mr Kelley said he was always conscious of his Irish heritage – 'we were an Irish-American family', he said. He taught himself the tin whistle and later the flute, and began playing Irish airs. He busked around Killarney to make money to support himself. . 'I also started doing wood carvings at my camp, from fallen trees; I used to carve a lot from rhododendron,' he said, referring to the woody plant that grows extensively in the Killarney park. 'It's got a good grain for carving, so I used to sell those wood carvings around town to supplement what I made from busking.' Michael Kelley and his mother Janice in a 2018 photograph posted on Facebook While he couldn't give an exact timeline for how long he lived in the park, Mr Kelley said his time there came to an abrupt end when rangers from the National Parks and Wildlife Service happened upon his camp. 'They found my camp and told me I had to leave, that I couldn't live in the national park – they were out shooting deer, and they had guns – so I wasn't going to argue with them,' he said. A National Parks and Wildlife Service source confirmed that park rangers came across Mr Kelley at his camp in the park some years ago and asked him to leave the area, as camping was prohibited in the park, and that he subsequently left. After an hour-long interview, Mr Kelley politely told The Irish Times he had to leave, abruptly ended the conversation and departed, disappearing into the Tralee streets.
