Annie McCarrick

**Annie Bridget McCarrick** was a young woman who vanished from Ireland in 1993. She disappeared the day before her birthday and she had not been living in Ireland for long when she vanished. Her case remains unsolved.

## Background

Annie Bridget McCarrick was born in 1966 and grew up in Long Island. She moved to Ireland for the first time in 1987 and studied at St. Patrick’s Training College in Dublin and later at St. Patrick’s College in in Maynooth. She returned to the USA in 1990 to get her master’s degree before to Ireland in 1993 with the intention of staying there.

Upon returning to Ireland Annie moved in to an apartment with two female roommates in Sandymount, Dublin. She worked at a restaurant in Donnybrook and was planning to become a teacher. Her mother was scheduled to visit her in March not long after she disappeared and she was looking forward to seeing her.

Annie was described as an outgoing and trusting but naïve woman. It was uncharacteristic of her to disappear without warning.

## Case

### Disappearance

Annie was last seen on March 26, 1993. She left her apartment that day with plans to spend the day in the Wicklow mountains. She had invited a friend with her but the friend in question was unable to come. CCTV showed Annie at the AIB (Allied Irish Bank) that morning were she withdrew some money. She then went shopping and returned to her apartment to drop off the food she had bought. She was later seen on the 44 bus from Ranelagh to Enniskerry at 3:40 p.m. that day.

At around 9:00 and 11:00 p.m. the doorman at Johnnie Fox’s pub in Glencullen believes that he saw Annie talking with a man in his 20s wearing a waxed jacket. The woman had gone to the club to see the Hooley Show, and event with traditional Irish music and dancing. The woman had not realised that she needed £2 to enter the pub and the man had paid for her. No one saw her leaving the club and neither the woman or the man she was with have ever been identified. Multiple other witnesses also sent in tips claiming to have seen Annie at the pub that night and as a result it is believed to be a credible sighting although it can not be confirmed. It should also be noted that Annie had been to his pub before.

The sightings at the club have been disputed though as Annie would have had to walk six miles through isolated areas to get from Enniskerry to Glencullen that night. The weather was wet on the night Annie vanished and it would have been dark by the time she arrived at Johnnie Fox’s which makes this even more unlikely.

### The Irish vanishing triangle

Annie’s case has been linked to the disappearances of a number of other young women who vanished in Ireland in the 1990’s. These cases, which are sometimes referred to as the Irish vanishing triangle, and considered to be the work of a possible serial killer. Investigators continue to investigate the cases but they are all unsolved and none of the young women’s bodies have ever been found.

### Theories

Two suspects in Annie’s presumed murder were identified in 2008 although neither of them have been publicly named. Both live in the Wicklow area an neither have criminal records.

An unnamed IRA (Irish Republican Army) member is also considered a suspect in Annie’s disappearance. The IRA was a terrorist organisation that is no longer active in Ireland. The man allegedly raped the daughter of another IRA man and may have done the same to other girls. Investigators believe he may have travelled to the USA to escape prosecution. Authorities believe that Annie met this man at Johnnie Fox’s pub the night she vanished and that he murdered her and concealed her body.

Annie’s father, who is now sadly dead, hired a private investigator to find out what had happened to Annie. The investigator believes that Annie was never at Johnnie Fox’s as the logistics of how she could have ended up there do not seem to make sense. He instead believes that a possible sighting of Annie at a small coffee shop could explain her disappearance. A witness saw a woman she believed to be Annie eating at the shop with a man and the two then left together. The investigator believes that this man may have murdered Annie.

### 2023 inquiry

On 24 March, 2023, 2 days before the 30th anniversary of Annie's disappearance, police announced that they ha upgraded her missing persons inquiry into a murder inquiry.

## Characteristics

* Brown hair.
* She has a pronounced American accent.

## Clothing and accessories

* A dark, tweed jacket.
* Oxblood coloured cowboy boots.
* She was carrying a tan shoulder bag.

## Sources

* Annie McCarrick at the *Charley Project*
* Annie McCarrick on Wikipedia
* Annie McCarrick at the *Doe Network*
* *RTÉ*