House search in Annie McCarrick murder investigation continues
The search for the remains of murdered
Annie McCarrick
, who disappeared in south Dublin in 1993, has continued into a second week. Gardaí are determined to definitively rule out a Dublin property as a possible burial site.
The dig operation is taking place on the grounds of a house in Clondalkin that was previously linked to the suspect. It has involved significant excavation work to the rear of the property.
The house has been renovated and extended since it was purchased about 15 years ago by its current owners, who have no connection to the case.
Gardaí have used mini diggers, Kango hammers and other machinery to excavate a section that has been built on in the period since Ms McCarrick disappeared.
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Gardaí are acting on a tip-off that something related to the case - either Ms McCarrick's remains or other evidence - may have been buried there in the 1990s.
Ms McCarrick, who was from New York, was 26 when she went missing and had been living in Sandymount, south Dublin.
A cadaver dog, believed to be the same animal that found Tina Satchwell's remains buried under her home in Youghal, Co Cork, in 2023, has been used to check the site in the event Ms McCarrick's body was there.
The people who currently own the home have moved out pending the completion of the search.
The Irish Times has made efforts to contact the chief suspect for Ms McCarrick's murder
since his release, without charge
, from Garda custody last Friday. However, nobody appeared to be at his home in the east of the country on Thursday and calls also went unanswered.
A wealthy businessman in his 60s, he was arrested last Thursday morning on suspicion of Ms McCarrick's murder and his home was searched. It was the first arrest in the inquiry, which has continued for more than 32 years.
The man was interviewed for the maximum 24 hours allowed under law and was then released from Irishtown Garda station in Dublin's south inner city, pending further investigations.
The suspect denies any wrongdoing and, as he faces no charges, there are no restrictions on his movements and no requirement for him to surrender his passport.
The man knew Ms McCarrick well from her time studying and working in Dublin and Kildare from the late 1980s into the 1990s. They were close at one point and he was spoken to, along with many others who knew Ms McCarrick, around the time she disappeared.
She was seen by her flatmates in her rented accommodation at St Cathryn's Court, Sandymount, on the morning of March 26th, 1993. When she failed to show up for work over the following two days and did not keep a dinner date with friends the evening after her last confirmed sighting, they became concerned and reported her missing on March 28th.
There were reported sightings of her on the day she disappeared. These were in Enniskerry, Co Wicklow and in Glencullen, Co Dublin. They have since been discounted. Gardaí believe Ms McCarrick was killed in south Dublin, or at least met her killer close to her home, and that she was murdered and her body disposed of by the time the alarm was raised.
She was said to have told US-based friends that the man arrested last week was harassing her just before she disappeared and that he had struck her when he was drinking. Those concerns were passed on to gardaí in 1993, though Ms McCarrick's friends do not believe they were acted on.
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