Just two days after suspected serial killer Larry Murphy was released from jail Annie McCarrick's friend, Marisa Mackle, has spoken out about the release of her friend's suspected murderer.
The horrified friend wrote in the Evening Herald about what a huge injustice it was that Larry Murphy be able to leave jail and get on with his life even though he refuses to help the police find Annie and the other five women missing in the same area.
She questions why he would not give their friends and families peace.
It's now 17-years since Annie McCarrick went missing in what became known as the "Vanishing Triangle," near Murphy's hometown of Baltinglass, Wicklow.
Annie had gone to college in Ireland and had returned to work and absorb the country that she loved.
Her friend Marisa said, "Annie loved Ireland. She felt safe here, but paid the ultimate price for her naivety -- with her life.
"She always told me the reason she came here was because Ireland was safer than New York.
"But since the release of Murphy yesterday, I know I'd feel much safer in New York."
While in Ireland, Annie lived in Sandymount, Dublin and shared an apartment with two female friends. Just days before her Mother was due to arrive on vacation, March 26, Annie did not show up at the restaurant where she worked. She also failed to turn up at a dinner party with friends. Supposedly Annie was last seen leaving a bar in Wicklow, by herself.
What Annie's fate was is still unknown. While serving 10 years of his 15-year sentence for repeated rape and the attempted murder of a Carlow business woman, he was asked to help the police with inquiries into five other missing women in the Leinster area. He refused to help.
In her article today, Marisa questions why Murphy is now a free man and says that she is haunted by questions about what happened to her friend Annie. She said: "Rarely a day goes by when I wonder where in the name of God she is buried. What fate became that smiling, enthusiastic New York waitress? Where is her body? Where is her dignity? Why can her evil killer not let her parents have a funeral to finally get closure?"
Marisa says that Annie was not a timid girl who was easily intimidated. Describing the brash New Yorker she said: "Annie, an only child, was no shrinking violet. I remember her having a bust-up with one of the chefs over a customer order and taking him down to size."
Like most women in Ireland, Marisa is terrified by the idea that Murphy is now free to walk to the streets of Ireland a roam freely to whatever town he might chose. She said: "Every woman should memorize his photo. I felt ill looking at Murphy's unrepentant face as he walked from jail yesterday."
Murphy went to jail for ten years for the attempted murder and repeated rape of a Carlow business woman. Marisa wondered how she has been feeling over the last number of weeks with the news of Murphy's release and the constant media coverage.
"I wondered what that Carlow businesswoman who nearly perished at his hands in the Wicklow Mountains, must have been feeling," said Marisa. "How can she even bear to go into a shop, see his face on the front of every paper and relive that horrific night of terror?"
In closing, Marisa questioned the sense in releasing Murphy from jail at all. She questioned what the police and authorities suppose is going to happen next and suggests that the Department for Justice should have tried to keep Murphy in prison.
"If Larry Murphy decides to go to England, as he is probably intending on doing, it just means that we have conveniently exported our most unwanted citizen," she said. "But if he strikes again, just remember this, Dermot Ahern, it's because our pathetic laws allowed it. It's all very well saying you can do nothing about this. Shame on you."
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