Many more people went missing last year than in 2001. Gardaí need to take a fresh approach to their investigations, relatives of the missing tell Conor Lally
Last month marked the 10th anniversary of the disappearance near Dublin of Annie McCarrick. Although acres of column inches have been written about the missing young American, her family's quest to find her has come to nothing. Other missing- persons cases have also captured our imagination in recent years. Even people only loosely acqu-ainted with news of the day would know the names of Philip Cairns, Deirdre Jacob, JoJo Dullard and others. But for the vast majority of the families of "the missing", their stories rarely warrant a mention in the media.
Of the estimated 2,000 people reported missing every year, most turn up safe and well. For about 60 families the agony ends with the discovery of a body. But for 15 to 20 families there is no closure, no body to bury and grieve over. Their phone never rings, their loved ones are never seen or heard from again.
Last year, the figure for long-term missing trebled, to more than 60, compared with 2001. Yet there were no news stories about the increase, and the details of few of those cases are known to the public. There is no explanation, no analysis as to why that figure jumped so sharply.
Father Aquinas Duffy believes the authorities need to improve their approach to missing-persons cases. The Tallaght-based priest runs a website, www.missingirishpeople.com.
"The guards will do all they can to find somebody," he says. "The problem is that all too often that is not very much. You would have to say that there is room for improvement. The approach the guards have here is quite different from police forces in other countries.
"Overseas, when a person goes missing a search will take place which will include the gathering of forensic evidence from a very early stage in the investigation. The search becomes a murder inquiry almost from day one. What that means is that if a body is found after a while, at least an investigation will have gotten under way at the right time. The police will have gathered evidence and a case has some chance of success.
"Here in Ireland that doesn't happen. So if a body is found after someone is reported missing it is too late. How can you start a murder inquiry, start to gather evidence, weeks, months or even years after remains are found? The answer is, you can't.
"Of course, in a lot of cases people want to go missing. They will go in for very elaborate plots that would make you think they must be dead, but in fact they aren't. Some are found, but they don't want to go home. Even in those cases, though, at least the families know the person is OK, which is a great comfort."
Father Duffy set up his website three years ago. It is a project close to his heart. On February 11th, 2000, his nephew Aengus Shanahan went missing on a night out with friends in his native Limerick. He had just turned 20. His family know nothing of what happened to him. He was to become a statistic, another face staring out at visitors to his uncle's website.
John McGuinness, the Carlow-Kilkenny TD, says he is determined to shake up the authorities' attitude to missing-persons cases. He and Mary Phelan, sister of JoJo Dullard, visited the US for a week around St Patrick's Day. Their mission was to learn about best practice there. McGuinness says he was heartened by the support from leading US politicians and the FBI. But he was also alarmed at what he learned.
While visiting John Jay College of Criminal Justice, part of the City University of New York, McGuinness learned the institution already has an academic exchange programme with Ireland, the Jerry McCabe Fellowship. Through this, the college offers to train members of the Garda Síochána in aspects of policing.
"You have people there who would have all kinds of expertise on techniques vital to missing-persons searches, and yet the guards have not availed of the opportunity to go and learn best practice in this area. I was shocked to hear this programme was in place and disappointed the guards had never taken advantage of it.
"There would be all kinds of things they could learn about psychological profiling, forensics and search techniques from FBI and New York Police Department experts," says McGuinness.
He believes the Garda could learn much from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, in Virginia, which has also offered to train members of the Irish force. "They have 250 staff there with a call centre in operation around the clock. They have developed software which would be very useful in Ireland. It basically produces pictures of children who go missing, showing how they would look many years after they disappear.
"They had one very famous case where a child was abducted at four and he was found aged 16. The centre kept producing pictures of him, taking a model from the facial bone structure of members of his family. Eventually, the kid was found living with a family in another part of the US after his classmate recognised him and pointed out that he in fact was a missing person.
"That was simply because they never stopped looking for him. They kept up that intensive search and had the resources to do it. We have to heed that lesson here."
McGuinness claims Garda Commissioner Pat Byrne has never explained why his force seems reluctant to seek help from other jurisdictions in missing-persons cases. Earlier this year, however, Byrne said his greatest disappointment about his term of office was the lack of progress in the investigations into a number of women who have gone missing over the past decade or so.
"We never found any of them or their bodies. We pursued every lead that could possibly be pursued. We contacted agencies around the world. It's very strange. If they are dead, why hasn't somebody found the bodies? There's an answer somewhere."
McGuinness responds: "Operation Trace [which was set up to find missing women\] was simply a bureaucratic exercise." But he has requested meetings with Byrne and with the Taoiseach to discuss the findings of his US visit and is hopeful Irish attitudes will change.
In response to McGuinness's claims, a Garda spokesman says Operation Trace is still active and is not a PR exercise. He says missing persons have always been a priority for the force and will remain so.
Although the force does not have an investigative missing-persons unit, there is a missing persons bureau section at Garda headquarters. That unit helps with investigations and co-operates with international agencies such as Interpol and Europol. And the force is never unwilling to improve its expertise in any area of policing, he adds.
Mary Phelan has always said she was unhappy with how the Garda Síochána handled the search for her sister JoJo Dullard.
The 21-year-old, from Callan, Co Kilkenny, went missing in November 1995 and was last seen in Moone, Co Kildare.
"The bottom line is that the guards simply do not take this issue seriously enough. The support is there from the Americans to help us improve how we do things, I am sure of that. So why can't we take them up on that offer?
"We intend to go to New Scotland Yard [in London\] as well and really keep the ball rolling on this. I am in touch with a lot of families of missing people, and in virtually all the cases there is a suspect, particularly in JoJo's case.
"The cases should be investigated as homicides. I will certainly not rest until a special unit is established here."
To give information about a missing person, contact any Garda station, the Garda confidential line (1800-666111) or the National Missing Persons Helpline (1850- 442552)
Missing since 2002
Michael Murphy
Born 1971
Missing From Sallynoggin, Co Dublin, since June 17th, 2002
Height Five feet, 11 inches
Hair Black, with slight moustache
Eyes Brown
If you have any information, you should contact gardaí at
Kill O' Grange, Dublin, on 01-6665500
Timothy O'Connell
Born 1960
Missing From Ballyphehane, Cork, since December 17th, 2002
Height Five feet, two inches
Build Stocky
Hair Light brown
Eyes Blue
Contact gardaí at Togher, Cork, on 021-4962611
Details from www.missingirishpeople.com
