Convicted rapist Larry Murphy who is suspected of murdering Irish American woman Annie McCarrick is planning to move to the area where he brutally raped a Co. Carlow business woman in 2000.

Murphy is suspected of being a serial killer who may have slain many other women who went missing when he was on the rampage

Murphy, 45, is to walk free from prison in Ireland on August 12 after serving 9 years of a 15-year rape sentence.

He is being released on good behavior.

Murphy was convicted of raping a businesswoman whom he kidnapped from a car park in Carlow in 2000.

The Herald newspaper reported on Thursday that Murphy has made contact with a family member who resides near Baltinglass, Co. Wicklow, only minutes from the area he carried out his attack. 

It has been believed for sometime that Murphy, a married father of two, is the man responsible for McCarrick’s disappearance.

Detectives also believe that Murphy murdered Irish women Deirdre Jacob and Jo Jo Dullard.

The three cases still remain unsolved.

McCarrick, whose family is from Long Island, New York, disappeared in Wicklow in 1993 and her body has never been found.

Her heartbroken parents spent lengthy spells in Ireland trying to trace her movements, but were never able to find any clues as to what happened after she apparently left a nearby bar alone.

McCarrick was 26 when she returned to Ireland in January 1993 after attending college there and falling in love with the country.

She was last seen on March 26 that year.

According to friends, McCarrick went to visit the Wickow Mountains for the day. She never returned.

Locals in Co. Wicklow are now petrified at Murphy's return.

One businesswoman told The Herald: “I’m very concerned. It’s too close for comfort. The world knows about it at this stage.”

Another local added: “You can imagine how people are feeling. Where he’s going to be living is obviously going to be of interest to people. It’s important that people know. [We’ll have to] wait and find out.”

He is expected to stay with a family member after his release next month, at a property not far from Murphy’s home village.

The home on the outskirts of Baltinglass, Co Wicklow, has been modified to accommodate him, it is understood.

“I feel the women are pretty scared. He’s a crafty sort of person and he seems bad. He was definitely guilty anyway. He’s awful sly, a bit of a loner, distant, and you get a bad feeling about him,” said another local.

“It’s worrying, obviously everyone is hoping that he’s not going to be living here. Everyone knew for the last few years that he was getting out,” he added.

“I wouldn’t like to be a girl on a lonely country road and he’d come along on a motorbike,” said another concerned local.

A pensioner added: “We’d be worried, [and wondering] are they going to send him back home or away to England or somewhere, but then they can’t because he’s on the sex offenders’ list.”

One retired woman said: “If we had little grandchildren or something living anywhere close to him, we would be concerned.”

“I don’t know what the answer is. They have to live somewhere, he’s done his time, but then with people with children you could understand their worry.”

McCarrick was born and raised in Long Island, but moved in Ireland in 1987. She studied to be a teacher at St. Patrick’s Training College in Drumcondra, Dublin, and later at St. Patrick’s College in Maynooth.

She came back to the U.S in 1990 but returned to Ireland in January 1993 to live there permanently.

She planned to become a teacher.

Annie's father, John McCarrick, said at the time he knew immediately something was terribly wrong .

"She was always reaching out and touching someone . . . She would never have gone a day without talking to someone . . . We were very, very concerned," he told reporters.

Upon his release, Murphy is refusing all offers of medical and mental treatment, including the chance to take part in a rehabilitation program.