On the trail of a killer

Marie Kilmartin's daughter plans to bring her mother's killer to justice - and this year she may set up a charity to fund investigation into other unsolved cases, writes Michelle McDonagh.

When Marie Kilmartin gave birth to her daughter, Áine, in 1980, times were very different in Ireland, and she was forced to give her baby up for adoption.

It wasn't until 20 years later that Áine, who had been adopted within her mother's extended family, discovered the identity of her natural mother. Her shock was compounded by the fact that she had attended Marie's funeral seven years previously, after her murder.

Áine (26) likens her life to the movie The Truman Show: "Everyone in the wider family knew that Marie was my mother and I only found out much later. It was a shock to find out, not only that Marie had been my mum, but that I was the last to know."

Originally from Ballinasloe, Marie Kilmartin was living in Portlaoise, where she worked in a home for the elderly, when she went missing on December 15th, 1993.

Six months later, her body was found in a bog about half a mile off the Mountmellick-Portarlington road. She had been strangled, and a concrete slab had been placed on her chest.

Gardaí in Portlaoise believed there was a strong local dimension to the murder, as the isolated drain where the body was found was consistent with local knowledge. However, her killer or killers have never been apprehended despite an ongoing investigation and the offer of a reward for information leading to the discovery of the killer.

Now Áine is determined to do everything she can to find out about her mother's killer/s and to get justice for Marie. To this end, she has set up a website at www.imom1512.com (an acronym for In Memory of Marie and the date of her disappearance) to try to solve her mother's case, and to raise awareness of other unsolved murder cases in Ireland, particularly those involving young women.

Posted on the website is a photo of Marie Kilmartin, taken shortly after Áine's birth, which shows a smiling, pleasant-looking young woman.

"Twenty years after this photograph was taken, my search for maternal relations was replaced by a search for answers and justice," says Áine.

Through the I Mom website, Áine also aims to assess the demand for the foundation of a charity which would fund the investigation of unsolved Irish murder cases. For every unresolved murder case in Ireland in the past 30 years, she says, there is still at least one murderer out there.

"As awful as it sounds, that murderer has every chance of re-offending and the next victim has every chance of being your mom, a loved one, a friend, or even you."

Although she was aware from a young age that she was adopted, it wasn't until she was 20 that Áine was told by a cousin who her real mother was. This information was later confirmed by her adoptive parents. (Áine does not want to disclose how closely related her adoptive parents were to Marie.)

"I can remember when Marie went missing but, as a child of 13 who didn't know she was my mother, it wasn't a big thing for me. I knew she was a relation of mine and I would have met her four or five times in my life."

Áine remembers the six months of Marie's disappearance as being a very strange time. During a visit to Marie's homeplace during this time, she felt intuitively that something was very wrong and that Marie was dead.

"On the day of Marie's funeral, her best friend gave me a big hug and said she was so sorry. I wondered about that at the time but the family was very closed and I learnt very early on not to ask questions. People wanted silence, they did not want questions to be asked, and I often wondered about that."

Áine moved out of home after her Leaving Cert and is now living in Dublin where she has started a new life for herself. She has not been in contact with her adopted family since November of 2005. She spent Christmas with her best friend in Dublin. Her friends are her family now, she says and without them, she wouldn't be able to keep going.

"I didn't have a happy upbringing, to be honest about it. I always felt like an outsider in the family but not with my father - he was the only one I felt loved by. But I don't want people to feel sorry for me, this is about my mother, not me."

After finding out the truth about her real mother, Áine admits that she fell apart and "was a total mess" for a while.

She says she has a very good idea of who her mother's killers were, and she has given this information to gardaí in Portlaoise, but she accepts that it will be a long road.

When she starts to talk about the website, the sadness leaves her voice and she becomes filled with enthusiasm.

"I want to assess the demand for a charity to be set up to subsidise the investigation by detectives of unsolved Irish murder cases. Gardaí do not have the resources at the moment; there is no specialised unit to work on these cases.

"I do not think it is respectful to the people who have been murdered, especially the women in Leinster whose bodies have never been found, that their files are just taken out every now and then. There are so many families out there whose daughters have never been found."

Áine says she has already been approached by a number of business people with offers of financial help for her charity and if she feels the demand is there by next June, she will go ahead and set it up.

She is calling on politicians of all parties to give their support to her campaign but is disappointed with the lack of political response to date, apart from the Mayor of Portlaoise, Brian Stanley.

However, Áine was delighted with the response she received from people on the streets of Portlaoise in December when she handed out more than 1,000 leaflets to publicise the launch of the website.

She remarks: "I didn't know Marie but what I have heard from her friends is that she was a lovely, loving, caring person. Her death was too easily forgotten."

Superintendent Philip Lyons of Portlaoise Garda Station said he was sad to say there had been no progress in their investigation into the death of Marie Kilmartin since the I Mom website was set up on December 15th.

However, he said the Garda was very supportive of what Áine was doing to try to find information that would lead to her mother's killer/s.

"Over the past few months, we have been conducting a cold-case review of the case as a matter of routine. It is an ongoing case and I met with Áine myself a couple of days before Christmas to discuss it," he said.

Anybody with any information relating to the disappearance and murder of Marie Kilmartin is asked to contact Portlaoise gardaí at 057-8674100 or Crimestoppers on 1800-250025.

Joan Deane of AdVIC (Advocates for Victims of Homicide) says the organisation has offered to support Áine in whatever practical way it can.

The national non-profit charity, which campaigns for greater rights for victims of homicide, their families and friends, was set up in 2005 by a group of families who were all trying to cope with the unlawful killing of a family member, whether through murder, manslaughter or fatal assault.

"We at AdVIC understand the issues faced by families following the homicide of their loved ones, as all our members have suffered a similar tragedy. AdVIC was formed to ensure that the rights of families of homicide victims are not ignored within the criminal justice system and to bring about a fairer, more balanced system for such families," explains Deane.

As well as providing information on their website, www.advic.ie, the organisation have recently published The Helpful Directory of Information for People Bereaved by Homicide, which is available through the website.

One of the objectives of AdVIC is to advocate for changes in the Irish criminal justice system, including changes in pre-trial procedures, Garda training, representation, sentencing and bail, parole and release, and financial help.