Search dogs sniff out lead in ‘vanishing triangle’ case of six missing women

Springer spaniel Nelly (7) and border collie Bee (3) have sniffed out a lead in the decades-old murder mystery.

The women went missing in the mid-1990s, with many blaming a serial killer.

Kidnapper and rapist Larry Murphy was identified as a suspect in a number of the disappearances but never charged.

Five of the women were last seen within an 80-mile radius of an area known as the ‘vanishing triangle’.

No one has been convicted for their disappearances or deaths.

Nelly and Bee appear in a new documentary on the case, identifying a potential burial site in the Wicklow Mountains.

Nelly’s handler is the renowned Holywood, Co Down dog trainer Dr Neil Powell, from the Search and Rescue Dogs Association (Sarda) — Ireland North.

“It was excellent from the point of view that we might be able to do something to help bring these girls home to their folks”.

“That’s our aim — to bring closure in one way or another. This is particularly poignant in that it’s gone on for over 30 years and the girls met such a horrible end.

“It’s very important to us to help, even if it’s in a small way, and to help in the recovery.”

Dr Powell features alongside Bee’s handler and fellow Sarda volunteer Raph O’Connor, also from Holywood, in Six Silent Killings: Ireland’s Vanishing Circle, currently airing on Sky TV.

The two-part documentary sees investigators home in on a long-forgotten underground storage chamber near Larry Murphy’s home which has lain sealed for years.

Neil said: “There were five of us in total, including Raph and I, all great guys.

“Our part with the dogs was to first determine if there was any detectable odour of human decay.

“We did it first with Nelly in 2021. It was December, but despite the weather she indicated on a bearing of due south from the entrance.

“We noted that, came back in the spring and let her search the whole place. She went to the exact same place, as did Raph’s dog.

“Now, it’s important to realise that doesn’t mean there is a body there. What it means is the dogs have detected the odour they have been trained to find. It’s a strong indicator.

“If there was a chamber under there, we worked on the assumption of it being a linear construction and so took the initial indication sites and probed holes every two metres back towards the entrance.

“We also probed decoy holes, and still the dogs strongly indicated at the holes which were plotted along the route we suspected.

“That was a big sign to us that they may have found this underground chamber.

“It’s a very sensitive site, so they may need to use non-penetrative radar and so on to focus in on the area of interest, as opposed to going in and JCB-ing it.”

The disappearance of the women, all aged between 17 and 25, remains a mystery 30 years on, with the families of Josephine ‘JoJo’ Dullard, Fiona Pender, Ciara Breen, Fiona Sinnott, Deirdre Jacob and American national Annie McCarrick still searching for justice.

Despite the dogs’ indications, there is no guarantee the patch of land holds the answers so many seek.

Neil said: “The chamber was apparently open at both ends at some point in the past and a pig had fallen into it. The story goes that they got the pig out and sealed it up to prevent this happening again.

“The question is, did they get all of the pig out? Decaying swine would give a similar scent picture to that of a human being in decay, so that would need to be cleared up. When we started on this project it was a missing person enquiry, but there was so much evidence being presented to the guards that there was some talk of it being upgraded to a murder investigation.

“That would assist for access to certain areas, but I’m not sure what’s happening at the moment. It’s all up in the air and we’re not sure what else will come from this.

“Everything is with the guards, as I understand it, so it’s in their court now, but those indications would normally require further investigation.

“It’s purely an area of interest. I stupidly said on the show, ‘If there’s a body there, the dogs will find it’, which is probably true, but if there’s not a body there it is possible for the dogs to indicate at something similar.”

Six Silent Killings: Ireland’s Vanishing Circle is available on Sky Showcase and Now TV