Stolen Sister episode 1, recapped
The author Alice Walker once said: "Is solace anywhere more comforting than that in the arms of a sister?"
This philosophy seems fitting when speaking about the sisters of Elizabeth Plunkett.
Many people will be familiar with Elizabeth's name in 1976, she was brutally murdered in Brittas Bay Co Wicklow by Ireland's first serial killers, John Shaw and Geoffrey Evans.
For many, justice was served nearly 50 years ago when the pair were both sentenced to life in prison.
However, a parole hearing for Shaw nearly two years ago would turn the lives of this family, in particular the Plunkett sisters - Kathleen, Bernie and Joan, upside down.
The women contacted the DPP, the Garda Commissioner and the State Solicitor's Office for assistance, but their pleas fell on deaf ears.
So, in July 2024, they took a leap of faith and emailed their final port of call - the team at RTÉ Documentary On One.
After months of work, that email has given rise to Stolen Sister, a six-part podcast series hosted by Roz Purcell that unpacks how a routine parole application rewrote the history of this case and forced the Plunkett family to take their story public for the first time in nearly 50 years.
Because a lot of things you've read about the murder of Elizabeth Plunkett in books, the media or online, it's well, wrong.
If you struggle to believe that, I strongly suggest you keep reading or, better yet, start streaming episode one of Stolen Sister right now.
Ringsend
In the first episode, the Plunkett siblings take the listener back in time to their childhood home in Ringsend. It set the scene and creates a feeling of intimacy between the listener and the family before the harrowing details of the case emerge.
In the 70s Ringsend was a tight-knit community full of working-class families, and as the middle child of eight, Elizabeth ruled the roost.
There were four boys - Eddie, Thomas, Liam and Sean and four girls - Joan, Elizabeth, Kathleen and Bernie in the Plunkett family.
The podcast touches on the changes taking place as Ireland moved from the 60s into the 70s and women slowly gained more independence.
Elizabeth's sister Bernie described the impact this changing time had on her beloved sister and how it shaped her outlook.
"There was more independence. There was more work, and there was more money. So they were saying, don't stick back in the old-fashioned way like their parents, you got married, you had children, you stayed at home. This wasn't going to be a life that Elizabeth wanted."
Eddie, the eldest boy, also contributed to the series; he described how Elizabeth would take over the family home on a Saturday morning and clean it from top to bottom.
Throughout the series, the family speaks of the split in their lives - the world before and after Elizabeth was killed.
The family home is situated on the banks of the Liffey in Dublin City, where the river meets the Irish Sea.
"We were a very united, large Dublin working class family. The bond then was unique… Little did we know that all of this would come crashing down, it destroyed the peace." - Eddie Plunkett, Elizabeth's brother
On a clear day, Purcell tells the listener, you can make out the Northwest of England, the homeplace of the men who would take Elizabeth's life.
JS and GE
At the time they murdered Elizabeth, and later Mayo woman Mary Duffy John Shaw, and Geoffrey Evans were in Ireland evading sexual assault and rape charges in the UK under new identities.
Both men had been married and had children. They met in prison while serving time for robbery and assault.
Before they began their reign of terror, the men were arrested for burglary and had a year-long stay in Irish prisons in Limerick and Mountjoy.
They were due to be extradited back to the UK to answer the charges, so they decided to abduct, rape and murder a woman a week until they were caught.
The reason why the pair weren't extradited immediately was because Shaw claimed he wasn't the same person named on the extradition warrant, so the judge released him on bail, and the gardaí had to build a case to prove his identity.
Even more shockingly, this same legal loophole worked for Evans three weeks later.
In 1974, as Elizabeth turned 21, Shaw and Evans were released from prison in England and within a short time, they'd brutally kidnapped and raped three victims in the Greater Manchester area - Roz Purcell, host
The Plunkett sisters do not say the name of their sister's murderers during the podcast; instead, they simply refer to them as JS and GE.
Damien
The podcast makers managed to secure an interview with Elizabeth's close friend Mella Nesbitt, a key figure in this story.
The women met while working in the De La Rue factory.
A few months before Elizabeth died, Mella introduced her to her brother Damien. Damian and Elizabeth began dating, and according to Mella, they were inseparable.
"I was the little gooseberry. I was always stuck between the two of them. Now I would be maybe a couple of yards behind them or I might be sitting somewhere and I could just hear the two of them shouting at one another that they loved one another."
He worked as a mechanic in his family's garage in Inchicore, Co Dublin.
According to the Plunkett sisters, Damien would pull up in his Capri car to collect Elizabeth blaring ABBA out the windows.
In July 1976, Elizabeth, Mella and Damien took a trip to St Tropez, where Elizabeth would purchase the infamous jumper she wore the night she was killed.
Damien was a really nice guy, I have to say. She was madly in love with him and I think he felt the same about her - Bernie Plunkett, Elizabeth's sister
That fateful night when Elizabeth was murdered Damien got into an argument with a friend about a car, while that detail might seem irrelevant, it would ultimately alter the course of Elizabeth's life…
Brittas Bay
The summer of 1976 was one of the hottest on record in Ireland. A last trip to Brittas Bay was supposed to close out the summer season for Elizabeth Plunkett and her friends. It was supposed to be the kind of weekend you dream about during your 9-5, instead it became a nightmare for the entire nation.
Statements given to gardaí by Elizabeth's killers, as well as her friends, are read throughout the podcast to create an accurate timeline of her last movements.
It is worth adding that the statements given by Shaw and Evans are eerily detailed and not for the faint of heart.
Elizabeth left McDaniel's pub at around 10.30 pm. She had grown frustrated when Damien and his friend Joe McCoy started a fight over a car.
The men had bought a car together, which Damien had then sold without consulting Joe.
As you can expect, within a few minutes, the men had resolved their dispute, and Damien went in search of Elizabeth. He should have found her, made up and joined their friends for a wonderful weekend in a caravan by the sea.
But he never did find her, nor did he ever see her again.
I put my finger on her left cheek and said, "Go away, don't be annoying me. She said, "If you do that again I'll go home". I said to her "go home then" - Damien Bushe, Elizabeth's former boyfriend
Right, before Shaw and Evans preyed upon Elizabeth, they approached another woman who managed to get away - gardaí never have managed to locate this woman.
I mention this as like all Doc on One series, this is an active investigation, so if you were in Brittas Bay on 28th August 1976 and have any further information on Elizabeth Plunkett, please contact us in confidence at documentaries@rte.ie
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