Missing Laois woman to feature on RTÉ series

The RTÉ documentary, MISSING: Beyond the Vanishing Triangle on RTE One will feature the disappearance of Laois woman Imelda Keenan from Mountmellick.

The second part of the RTÉ  show hears from Imelda’s brother, Gerry Keenan. She went missing in 1993 in Waterford city aged 22. Her case was treated as a suicide but she has since been included in Operation TRACE, a garda investigation into missing women.

Gerry said the revelation that his sister’s case was classified as suicide made no sense.  

 “Imelda would never ever think of suicide.  I don’t think Imelda would ever consider that.” “Deep down, in my own heart I think that Imelda was murdered in Waterford.  I think Imelda knew her murderer.”   

He is calling for the case to be upgraded to a murder investigation and has written to the Garda authorities seeking answers.

"Is this a missing or a murder case? After 29 years, this has to be (a) murder case.  We want the Gardaí to look into it more for us and give us peace. 

“I always believed that there is two or three people here in Waterford City holding back vital information. We want someone to come forward please and just take us out of this pain,” he said.

The TRACE team has expanded its search to take in other cases, including the 1993 disappearance of 22-year-old Imelda Keenan from Waterford city.  

Operation TRACE team member Alan Bailey reveals in the programme that he was surprised to hear the case was categorised as a possible suicide. 

“Now that left the door open that it may not have been but I’d be afraid that a category like that or categorising something like that could colour the approach to it,” he said. 

The Gardaí confirmed that Imelda's disappearance remains listed as a missing person case.

Assistant Garda Commissioner Tony Hickey, was recruited to lead Operation TRACE to review six initial cases: Annie McCarrick, Fiona Pender, Fiona Sinnott, Deirdre Jacob, Jo Jo Dullard and Ciara Breen.   

He selected a small team of experienced investigators to review the cases and for the first time examine potential links between the disappearances.  

The documentary also looks at other high-profile cases, including the kidnap, rape and attempted murder of a woman in 2000 by Larry Murphy within the location that has become known as the Vanishing Triangle. This attack was also part of the review by the Operation TRACE team.   

“From our point of view, it was quite close to where we were operating from. It was in the region concerned – more or less the centre of what was called the Triangle.” 

Retired detective Alan Bailey explains: “Larry, of course, because of the modus operandi he used in the abduction and assault became a person of interest to the Operation Trace investigation.” “I mean, he ticked an awful lot of boxes for us... We went back to school, to work and all that just to establish a picture of him and see if we could connect him to any of our missing persons “   

“There was no obvious link and we were saying to ourselves he ticks a lot of boxes so he was a person of interest,” he adds. 

In MISSING: Beyond the Vanishing Triangle, Larry Murphy’s estranged brother Tom reveals that the last time he saw Larry was in 2005 in Arbour Hill Prison.    

“I asked him had he anything to do with the missing women. I wasn’t happy with his answers. I wasn’t at all happy with them.  I didn’t get any answers,” he says. “I never want to see him again. I can’t begin to comprehend the suffering these families are going through. They get up in the morning to a house, their daughter is not there. They’re sitting watching the front door to open for her to walk in. I have a daughter myself. I can’t begin to imagine what it’s like. I just can’t.”   

While Larry Murphy remains a person of interest, Gardai have never been able to uncover sufficient evidence to connect him to the disappearance of any of the missing women featured in the series. 

Watch the second part of MISSING: Beyond the Vanishing Triangle Monday night at 9.35pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player