Transcript: 81. The Murder of Raonaid Murray | Ireland

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You are listening to: The Evidence Locker.
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Our cases have been researched using open source and archive materials. It deals with true crimes and real people. Each episode is produced with the utmost respect to the victims, their families and loved ones.
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In the early morning hours of the 4th of September 1999, 23-year-old Sarah Murray was heading home after a night out in Dublin. She took a taxi with a couple of friends and was dropped off at the end of her road. What Sarah did not know, was that her life was about to change forever.
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On the footpath leading out from a tree-lined pedestrian laneway was the body of a young woman. Sarah immediately recognised her familiar form, her clothes, the Sally West shopping bag… It was her 17-year-old sister, Raonaid.
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She rushed over and tried to wake her sister and was shocked to discover she was covered in blood. Sarah’s friend, a nurse, told her to go home and call for help, while she tended to Raonaid. But she could not find a pulse and knew that it was too late – the teenager was no longer alive.
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Just over an hour before her body was discovered, Raonaid had left a pub and was on her way home. She had plans to meet up with some friends at a nightclub, but she never made it there.
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Her murder has become a case that haunts the Irish police to this day – who killed Raonaid Murray on that balmy late summer night, only a couple of yards from the front door of her family home?
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Raonaid Murray was born on the 1st of January 1982 to Jim and Deidre Murray. The family lived in Glenageary – a wealthy, leafy suburb of south county Dublin. She was the youngest of three children and had two older siblings, a brother Daniel and sister Sarah.
00:03:17  
At school, Raonaid liked hanging out with the alternative crowd. Because they were usually seen clad in black, most people labelled them to be Goths. Although she liked the same things and listened to Nirvana CDs and enjoyed grunge music too, Raonaid was an avid George Michael fan.
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She was soft spoken and well-mannered, a little naïve in a way, still only tentatively embracing impending adulthood. Unlike most of her friends, she preferred wearing brighter colours and always stood out when she was with them.
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A bunch of them, boys and girls, made up what became known as ‘The Dun Laoghaire crew’. They kept a low profile and spent their time, hanging out together, talking about life and love and all their problems. They loved hanging out on a local beach with ruins, called ‘The Temple’ at Blackrock.
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As it was closed to the public, no one ever went there. They could drink beer, make music and make out, basically just do what teens do. To get there, they had to jump a couple of walls and walk for a bit. But once they were there, they felt alone, untouchable, free.
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Sometimes other teens also hung out there, other times police busted the parties and took their alcohol. But it was their special place, away from everything. They philosophised about what they called ‘the spirituality of fucked-upness’.
00:04:38 
They celebrated grunge music and everyone played some kind of instrument. Raonaid played the acoustic guitar and loved talking about music too. She was popular within the group and everyone felt that she was the one to go to if they needed advice or comfort. Raonaid seemed wise beyond her years, but at the same time she loved a good laugh and sharing jokes with her friends.
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But, as in any group of friends, there was underlying tension. The Dun Laoghaire crew was made up of misfits. There was one girl in particular who was very jealous of the other girls. Some even referred to her as ‘psychotic’. She had a violent streak and everyone was cautious of her. No one took her fits of rage too seriously though. It was always on to the next party or teen drama and she sort of blended in.
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In June 1999, Raonaid Murray completed her high school education at St Joseph of Cluny Secondary School in Killiney [Kill-eye-ney] – a Catholic School for girls. She loved poetry and playwriting and hoped to one day be a professional writer. Her favourite author was Dylan Thomas and she particularly loved his play ‘Under Milkwood’.
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Naturally, the Dun Laoghaire crew had become fragmented as everyone entered a new, post-high-school chapter in their lives. Despite this, Raonaid still had a large social circle and often went out with friends.
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After leaving school, Raonaid took a part-time job as a junior sales assistant at Sally West, a boutique at the local Shopping Centre. It was a step up from her job as an assistant at a candy stand at the Dun Laoghaire harbour. She was studying to re-do her Leaving Certificate, because she wanted to study arts at UCD (that is, University College Dublin). In the meantime, she hoped to qualify for a place at the arts faculty at Belfield.
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On Friday morning of September 3rd 1999, Raonaid had planned to travel into Dublin city centre to register for her course before her shift at Sally West. But she slept in and realised she would not have enough time to make it there and back in time for work. She called the Institute of Education from work, just before 1pm, and arranged to go in and sign on the Monday.
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Raonaid was relieved that she had not missed the opportunity to register and looked forward to her weekend. She was especially excited about her dad’s birthday the next day. It was a big one, seeing as he had also been promoted to the headmaster of a local school. She told her friends that she wanted to buy him a special pen to mark the occasion.
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At 4:40pm, Raonaid took her hour-long lunch break from work. She caught up with a good friend who walked her back to work after an hour and said goodbye. Her mom, Deidre, dropped into the store and Raonaid help her choose an outfit for her dad’s birthday. They had a fun exchange and Raonaid help her mom try on some items that had been marked down. Deidre recalled this afternoon in later years:
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"The last time I saw Raonaid, it was the Friday she had worked really hard to get this summer job down in Sally West in Dun Laoghaire, a ladies' clothes shop and the sales were on and she was saying to me, 'Oh mum, you will have to come down, there is great value, there is lovely things there'.
00:07:42 
That Friday, I left work early and I called into the shop and it is a treasured memory for me, I was very lucky to have this time with her. So I called into the shop and it was very quiet because it was around teatime and we had a lovely time. We said goodbye and her last words to me were, 'Bye mum, I'll see you later' and I went off and we never saw her alive again."
00:08:03 
At the end of Raonaid’s shift, she discovered that the strap on her shoulder bag had snapped off. She asked her manager if she could borrow a Sally West carry bag. Her manager agreed and made her promise she’d return it.
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After work, Raonaid went to Scotts Pub on Georges Street. It was  across the road of her place of work and she often joined friends for drinks after the shop closed at 9pm. She often went to Scotts after work and felt at home there. She knew many people and always had someone to hang out with.
00:09:04 
September 3rd 1999 was a Friday night like any other in Dun Laoghaire – many people were out socializing and having a good time. As you walked down Georges Street, music and laughter could be heard coming from the pubs and restaurants. It was a particularly hot and humid night and there was a late summer vibe about the place.
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Raonaid was supposed to babysit for someone that night, but it was cancelled. It was a Friday night and she was free to party. Her group of friends decided to go out dancing at one of their favourite spots, Paparazzi’s nightclub.
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Raonaid was still in her work clothes after a long shift and said she wanted to go home to change first. She also wanted to pick up some money from home and made plans to meet her friends around midnight. They left the pub and went their separate ways.
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Raonaid always walked home after work or a night out, the same route she had walked many times before. From Scott’s, it was about a 15-minute walk through a residential area with many public laneways criss-crossing between large homes. She grew up in the area and knew all the little walkways and shortcuts like the palm of her hand.
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Although it was late, it was still quite warm – she didn’t even wear her jacket, only hung it over her arm as she walked. It was misty, but that was not unusual at all. To someone who didn’t know the area, it would look spooky and ominous, but nothing bad ever happened in those laneways and many people walked around at night without any issues. Even looking at statistics, the Garda division of Dun Laoghaire has the lowest homicide rate of the city’s six divisions. She had no reason to be afraid.
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Raonaid’s friend had a change of plans and was not able to make it to Paparazzi’s anymore. She Raonaid’s home shortly before 12pm to tell her. However, when Raonaid’s dad answered the phone, the friend felt embarrassed about waking him and simply hung up.
00:10:51  
But even if she did not hang up, Jim Murray would have told her that his daughter was not home yet. A passing motorist said that she noticed Raonaid walking with a young man along Corrig Road at 11:53pm. The witness recalled this, because it looked like the man was ‘hassling’ her.
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She wasn’t too concerned, because it looked like Raonaid knew the man and that she had managed to get rid of him, as she darted a couple of steps ahead of him. This man was in his early twenties around 5’10 with sandy coloured hair, styled in a messy way. He was wearing light coloured cargo pants and a beige sweater.
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At 12:03, Raonaid was seen at the top of Lower Glenageary Rd and Corrig Road, this time she was alone. Her movements raised some questions, as this location was only about a 7-minute walk from Scott’s, why did it take her 40 minutes to get there?
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The window between 11:20 when Raonaid left the pub and 12:03 would become an issue of much contention. What delayed her? Did she bump into someone? Did she stop somewhere? If she was supposed to meet her friends just after midnight, would she not have been in more of a hurry?
00:12:03  
Shortly after midnight, a group of friends socializing in their back garden heard a female shouting phrases like ‘go away’ and ‘leave me alone’. Another witness also heard a definitive ‘fuck off’ before she screamed…  It stopped and they left it at that.
00:12:21  
The ‘cut’ or the ‘gaps ‘was a shortcut to Raonaid’s family home via Silchester Crescent. It was a tree lined path with dense branches and foliage. It was dimly lit and Raonaid’s assailant managed to get away in the cover of night.
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When Raonaid’s sister Sarah arrived home with two friends at 12:20am, she made the grisly discovery… Her little sister’s bloodied body was lying a mere 50 yards from their family home. She rushed home and her parents came running moments later. But there was nothing anyone could do to save Raonaid, he injuries were too severe and she had died. The Garda were called to the scene and immediately searched the area.
00:13:04 
Sadly, the crime scene yielded very few clues as to the identity of Raonaid’s killer. On a patch of grass off the footpath was a large amount of blood and it was concluded that she was attacked there. Then a trial of blood showed Raonaid’s desperate attempt to make it to the safety of her home, but she never did. She collapsed about 200 feet further along the track, just past the entry to the ‘cut’.
00:13:31  
Raonaid was fully dressed, still clutching her Sally West bag. Her purse contained all its contents and she had not been sexually assaulted. This made investigators believe from the start that the attack on Raonaid wasn’t random – it was not sexually motivated nor was it a robbery.
00:13:49  
The Murray family was devastated at the brutality of their daughter and sister’s murder. How could their ‘sunflower’ child have met such a violent death?
00:13:58  
The community mourned with the family and a large crowd gathered at her funeral at St Joseph’s Church. There were teens who had gone to school with Raonaid, their parents, new friends from the Institute of Education in Dublin, her Sally West co-workers as well as pupils from the boys’ school where Jim Murray had been appointed as headmaster.
00:14:16  
In the June following her murder, Raonaid’s grave at Shanganagh Cemetery was vandalized. Someone graffitied her headstone and a three-foot wooden cross was pulled out of the ground. Could this have been done by her killer? Or was this simply a ruthless act by reckless youths?
00:14:33 
Over the years, the vandalism continued. No other graves were desecrated when Raonaid’s was damaged, making her family believe that is was not a random act.
00:14:42  
The Garda felt the pressure of the community to solve the case. It was unforgivable that a young girl could be slaughtered so close to her home.
00:14:51  
All of Raonaid’s family, friends and acquaintances were questioned and every single one of them had only good things to say about the slain teen. She had no enemies or friction with anyone and was exceptionally well-liked.
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The autopsy found that Raonaid was stabbed over 30 times. Most of the wounds were superficial and barely tore through her skin. But four of the wounds were deep enough to have caused her death: one in her side, one in her chest, one in her shoulder and one in her armpit. The type of knife used was either a butcher’s knife or a kind of knife used for catering. It had a double edged blade of about six inches long.
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There were defensive marks on Raonaid’s left arm, indicating that she tried to fend off her attacker. Because of the position of the attacker in relation to Raonaid and the amount of blood at the scene the killer would have been covered in blood too.
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Female DNA was found under Raonaid’s fingernails. But working at a busy women’s boutique all day, brought Raonaid in close physical contact with many customers, so police had to bear in mind that the DNA could have been completely unrelated to the crime.
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The family appealed to the public for any information regarding Raonaid’s murder:
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"Remember what this murderer did… This murderer brutally took Raonaid's life and made her last moments a terrifying nightmare, viciously attacking Raonaid and leaving her to die alone in the dark."
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With little clues, Gardai had their jobs cut out for them in the investigation into the murder of Raonaid Murray. They did not have strong enough evidence to name anyone a prime suspect.
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A woman living in Silchester Road came forward and said that, around the time of the murder, she saw a young man running along the road AWAY from the laneway where Raonaid was killed. She described the man to be in his early twenties with neat short hair and he was wearing a short sleeved shirt.    
00:16:47 
Garda appealed to the public for information, but no further clues regarding this man came in.
00:16:55 
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00:18:18 
Investigators looked at the Dun Laoghaire crew as a whole and individually. Years after the initial interrogations, many of them came forward, stating that they were treated as freaks and many of them were directly accused of being Raonaid’s killer.
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It was a difficult time for them and especially her closest friends were in shock, they did not remember some details and because of this were deemed to be suspicious. One of Raonaid’s closest school friends said:
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“…they acted in a way I found to be accusatory and in instances felt a little ‘well what did you kids expect since you’re all that sort’. I‘m certain it was a hard job for those guards and likely a first experience of this kind of investigation and likely a first experience of this kind of investigation, but I also felt that things I was concerned about and questions I had from knowing her and our group were treated dismissively.”
00:19:06  
Another fact that made Gardai look bad in hindsight, was the fact that they were hell bent on closing the case before the National Bureau of investigation could. Because of this, information was not freely shared between departments and communication was not as transparent as it should have been.
00:19:24  
One person in the crew caught investigators’ attention: the female friend who was known to be jealous of others. The girl had family ties in the IRA and was known for her aggressive behaviour. Because there were so many superficial cuts on the victim, investigators had to consider that the attacker could possibly have been female. The woman has never been formally identified and we will refer to her as the ‘violent friend’.
00:19:49  
It is believed that she had a boyfriend who had been obsessed with Raonaid. This could never be substantiated and when questioned the couple denied any involvement in the murder. Also, her DNA did not match the DNA found under Raonaid’s fingernails. A young woman was seen near the location of Raonaid’s body, not long after she was discovered. She was between 16-23 years old with dark shoulder-length hair.
00:20:15  
Raonaid’s closest friends quietly wondered if this could possibly have been the same troubled, violent girl that was a marginal member of the Dun Laoghaire Crew. They also told   that she was either at Scott’s pub that night when Raonaid was there, OR she had made plans to meet the same friends Raonaid was supposed to meet at Paparazzi’s.
00:20:33  
Another strange fact was that she was the first one who called people in the Dun Laoghaire crew the following morning to tell them that Raonaid had been murdered. The timeline is blurry… Although it was public knowledge that a body was found, it was only confirmed to the media later in the day that the victim was in fact Raonaid Murray.
00:20:53 
The ‘violent friend’ left the country a year after the murder and still lives abroad. She visits Dublin from time to time and catch up the old Dun Laoghaire crew.
00:21:03  
Her friends also told police about another person who made them uneasy. It was a young man whom Raonaid had danced with at Paparazzi’s at the end of July, seven weeks before her murder.
00:21:13 
Her friends did not know his name, but were able to provide police with a description: he was a slender guy, in his late teens or early twenties. He had short and spikey, sandy hair. On the night he met Raonaid he was wearing light coloured combat trousers and he had reading glasses on his head. Raonaid left the nightclub with the guy.
00:21:33  
A short time later, her friends saw them together at Abrakebabra fast food restaurant. They talked about music and seemed to have hit it off. Raonaid’s friends assumed that the guy was a student who lived locally. He spoke in a posh accent and looked refined. Raonaid left the Abrakebabra with him.
00:21:53  
Later that same night, she showed up at a friend’s apartment in an agitated state. She did not want to elaborate but told the friend that someone had followed her. Raonaid was so spooked, she refused to leave her friend’s apartment before a taxi arrived to take her home. She never spoke of the incident again.
00:22:11  
Police found it significant that Raonaid was spotted with a man fitting the blonde student’s description, moments before she was killed. Remember, the witness, who saw Raonaid at 11:53 said the man was in his early twenties around 5’10 with sandy coloured hair, styled in a messy way, like Oasis front man Noel Gallagher’s hair.
00:22:30 
He wore beige combat trousers and a similar coloured sweater. Although the hairstyles were different, it is possible that although he had short spikey hair in July, it could have grown into the messy look by early September.
00:22:44  
Investigators believed Raonaid encountered this young man in the laneway between Silchester Road and her home in Silchester Park. They released two composite sketches to the public: one fitting the messy hair description and the other the spikey hair description.
00:23:00 
A taxi-driver who was working in the area on the night of the murder reported picking up a young man with blood on his trousers. He took the fare in the early hours of that Saturday morning at the shopping centre where Raonaid worked, not far from Scott’s.
00:23:14 
The man was between 20 and 30 years old and had short brown hair. He did not quite fit the description of the guy with the Noel Gallagher hairstyle and investigators were convinced that this was someone else.
00:23:31 
The taxi driver remembered the ride, because of the man’s strange behaviour. As soon as he got in, he gave the driver the address on Granville Road at the top of Newtownpark Avenue, Blackrock. He told the driver that he had spent the evening at Scruples Nightclub and wanted to get home before his girlfriend did.
00:23:44 
A couple of minutes into the trip, he changed his mind and gave the driver a different address. He went on to give the driver incoherent directions, suggesting a route that took the taxi in circles, way farther than it would have been had he gone directly.
00:23:59 
The passenger was not intoxicated and his sudden change did not make much sense. The address where the man got out, was only a short walk from the first address he gave the taxi driver.
00:24:11 
The driver stipulated that after he had dropped the man off, he saw him lingering behind a hedge, almost like he was waiting for the taxi driver to be out of sight before he entered the house or made his next move. The driver turned around at the end of the road and when he passed the house on his way back, the man was gone.
00:24:30 
Police conducted door-to-door interviews after receiving the information. No one fitting the description lived at the address the taxi driver was told was the passenger’s home. The residents of the home also did not know anyone fitting the description and said no one called around that time on that particular night.
00:24:49 
Police released a composite sketch of the man and multiple witnesses came forward, saying they had seen him at Scruples Nightclub on the night of the murder. However, nobody was able to identify him.
00:25:00 
Later on in the investigation, police were able to tracked him down. At the time of the murder, he was living on the other side of Newtownpark Avenue, not far from the scene where Raonaid met her killer. Tracing the route the taxi was instructed to take, investigators established that they drove past the man’s apartment to get to the address in Granville Estate where he was dropped off.
00:25:23 
When Gardai caught up with him, he was living in Dublin’s inner city. The taxi driver was asked to identify him and confirmed that he was, without a doubt, the strange passenger on the night in question.
00:25:28 
His identity has not been made public, so we will refer to him as the ‘taxi passenger’. He was a young man in his twenties who worked as a chef. When Gardai found him, he had a kitchen knife on his person.
00:25:49 
He was a heroin user and was said to have a violent temper. His criminal record included a sexual assault charge after a violent encounter with a young woman outside a nightclub in Wicklow. Years later an investigator who worked on the case came out and said that the ‘taxi passenger’ was known to ‘Raonaid’s inner circle’.
00:26:01 
He was questioned, but there was no evidence to link him to Raonaid’s murder. He also had an alibi of sorts. It was in a time before cell phones were used by everyone and most phone calls were made from home lines.
00:26:22 
At the time of Raonaid’s murder, a call was made to directory enquiries from the man’s rented apartment. Although it’s hardly a water-tight alibi, it was enough to cast doubt and police could not arrest him. It is not clear exactly when this call was made, seeing as though the man wasn’t home till close to 1am, if you take in account what time the taxi driver dropped him off.
00:26:45 
The ‘taxi passenger’ had spent some time in jail for unrelated charges and made an alleged jailhouse confession. A fellow inmate told the Garda that he told him he had murdered Raonaid because she did not want to have sex with him. However, the ‘taxi passenger’ denied ever saying it and there was no proof whether the confession held any weight or not.
00:27:06 
As the investigation continued, many suspects surfaced, some stronger than others. Another cook was also considered to be a possible suspect. He had a keen interest in martial arts and owned a collection of samurai swords and other blades. Officers also discovered a disturbing collection of violent pornography, including images of bestiality. However, the cook was able to provide a credible alibi and Gardai were forced to admit that he could not have committed the murder on the night of the third to the fourth of September.
00:27:38 
Another person of interest was a man who worked at a local hotel who had had a couple of brushes with the law. All of the incidents involved acts of violence against women. When questioned, he denied knowing Raonaid, but her friends said that the two of them had met before.
00:27:55 
Either way, there was no evidence placing him near the murder scene or with Raonaid on the night of her murder.
00:28:02 
Then there was also a barman who knew Raonaid. He was arrested for threatening his girlfriend at knifepoint in the years after Raonaid’s murder and was questioned in connection with Raonaid’s case.
00:28:12 
He admitted that he knew her from around the social scene in Dun Laoghaire, but he never had any personal contact with her. Gardai attempted to find a link between the man and Raonaid, but were unable to establish a connection.
00:28:26 
Another incident investigators could not ignore, was when a local butcher confessed to killing Raonaid after a night of heavy drinking. He also displayed violent tendencies towards women in the past.
00:28:38 
However, there was not enough evidence to charge him with regards to Raonaid’s case either.
00:28:44 
Another man who implicated himself was Farah Swaleh Noor, a Kenyan immigrant who eventually became the victim of a brutal murder himself. Infamous ‘Scissor Sisters’, Linda and Charlotte Milhall claimed that Noor had threatened their mother during a drunken argument and said:
00:29:00 
“I’m going to fucking kill you, just like I did with Raonaid Murray.”
00:29:04  
Kathleen Mulhall told Gardai her 38-year-old Kenyan boyfriend had said to her – on at least two occasions – that he had murdered Raonaid. She said he told her Raonaid was a friend of an ex-girlfriend and that he had stabbed her in a laneway with a knife.
00:29:18 
Farah Swaleh Noor was taken in for questioning as soon as officers received the tip. Investigators concluded that he did in fact say it, but that he was a fantasist – he knew Raonaid yes, but he was not her killer. He only said so to instil fear into his girlfriend.
00:29:36  
The investigation was not making any headway. Over the years more that 100 officers had been assigned to the case. By 2008, 3500 people had been interviewed and 12 arrests had been made. DNA was taken from 50 women; none matched the DNA found on Raonaid’ fingernails. Eventually over 200 people would become persons of interest, but no one has ever been charged.
00:30:02  
A Garda cold case review flagged 22 people who could possibly have been responsible for Raonaid’s murder, a so-called list of ‘red alert’ suspects.
00:30:11  
Every year her family and the Garda make sure that the case features in the press, asking the public to come forward with information. The photo of her that is used has made hers one of the most recognizable faces in Ireland. In a recent appeal, Garda spokesperson said:
00:30:29  
“Many who were then Raonaid’s age are now parents themselves with children, some of which would now be close to Raonaid’s age, and we would ask them to reflect now with the benefit of maturity and hindsight on any information which may be of assistance to the investigation.”
00:30:44  
On the 5th anniversary of Raonaid’s death, her family received an anonymous letter. The person expressed his condolences and then said that he knew who the murderer was. According to him, police had questioned the killer early on in the investigation and dismissed him without ever considering him to be guilty.
00:31:04  
The Garda were able to trace the letter to the ‘taxi passenger’ and took him in for questioning. After many hours of interrogation, they concluded that he had written the letter in an attempt to cast the light of suspicion away from himself. Despite extensive questioning, there was no new information and they still did not have enough evidence to arrest him.
00:31:25  
In 2009, on the 10 year anniversary of her death, a tribute website called www.raoinaid.com was launched and received 50,000 hits on launch day alone. Raonaid’s family started the website to give people from the wider community a place to leave messages of condolences.
00:31:43 
But ultimately they also hoped that it would encourage people with information to reach out. However, it wasn’t long before trolls made their way to the site, leaving insulting messages and disrespectful comments about Raonaid and her murder. The comments were too upsetting and the family decided it would be better to shut it down.
00:32:01  
The Garda investigated the abusive comments, hoping it would unearth valuable information, but it was another dead end.
00:32:09  
Irish law enforcement asked American criminal profilers to assist in compiling a profile of Raonaid’s killer. A forensic profile determined that they were looking for a young male who – at the time of the murder – was in his twenties.
00:32:22 
He was single and either lived by himself or with his mother. He did not have many friends and possibly struggled with drug addiction and mental illness. He would be characterised as someone with anti-social behaviour who have not had many intimate relationships. It was likely that he would kill again.
00:32:41  
It was the lack of motive that made the investigation very difficult. There were no similar attacks in the greater Dun Laoghaire or Dublin area before or since Raonaid’s murder, so the Garda did not believe it was a random killing. The fact that she was stabbed more than 30 times made it seem personal, it was a grudge killing.
00:32:54  
But who did it? Was it the ‘violent friend’? Or perhaps the guy she was seen with at Paparazzi’s and Abrakebabra in July? Was he the same person walking with her on Corrig Road on the night of her murder? Or was the killer the so-called ‘taxi passenger’?
00:33:15  
Years after the murder, the girls of the Dun Laoghaire crew met up again. The friend that met up with Raonaid during her last lunch break admitted that when she saw the ‘violent friend’ she immediately felt years of latent suspicion rush over her. And she wasn’t alone…
00:33:31 
At least two other close friends of Raonaid’s said that the ‘violent friend’ was extremely jealous of Raonaid – she felt inferior to Raonaid somehow, that she wasn’t quite as smart or beautiful or popular as she was.
00:33:43 
The general feeling is that because of the ‘violent friend’s’ dangerous family connections, she has been protected over the years and her status makes her untouchable by law enforcement.
00:33:54  
One also cannot exclude the ‘the taxi passenger’ and his strange behaviour on the night of the murder. He mentioned a girlfriend to the taxi driver… Is there any chance he was connected to the ‘violent friend’ and that he was the boyfriend who was rumoured to have been obsessed with Raonaid? Remember, it was revealed that the ‘taxi passenger’ was known to Raonaid’s inner circle.
00:34:14  
And what about the man with the light coloured combat pants? He was the last person seen with Raonaid – and she was seen trying to get away from him. As far as public knowledge goes, he has never been identified. Finding him, could crack this case wide open.
00:34:30  
Raonaid’s family and friends have raised a reward of 190,000Euro for information that would lead to solving the case.
00:34:39  
In September 2019, on the 20th anniversary of Raonaid’s death, her father Jim Murray appealed to the public for help, once again. He said:
00:34:49  
“Our beautiful child died on the pavement, with no loving, caring person there to help or comfort her… To her killer we say: come out from the shadows and own up to what you have done. Do the right thing: confess your crime… Raonaid died alone and frightened. Her killer is free. For Raonaid’s sake – help find her murderer and get the justice for her that she deserves.”
00:35:17  
You shall go as the others have gone,
Lay your head
On a hard bed
Of Stone
And have the raven for companion.
[Dylan Thomas from the Ploughman's gone]
00:35:33  
If there is anyone with knowledge about this case, please reach out to law enforcement. Find contact information in the show notes.
00:35:43  
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00:35:48  
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00:35:55  
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00:36:06  
This was The Evidence Locker. Thank you for listening!
 

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