On a warm Friday evening in September 1999, a teenage girl finished a long shift at her part time job. She met up with friends at a pub and left to go home with plans to meet back up later that night.
On the cusp of adulthood, at just seventeen years old, Raonaid Murray was found on the pavement by her sister, murdered, 500 yards from her front door.
Raonaid Murray was born January 6th 1982, she was the youngest of three children, raised in a small suburban area in Dublin, Ireland, called Glenageary. This was a place where everyone knew everyone - or at least they thought they did.
Glenageary was a typical Irish ‘small town’ where people left their doors unlocked, generally felt safe and nobody out of place would’ve flown under the radar without being noticed. People weren’t worried at all, and especially not Raonaid’s family.
Raonaids mother Deidre, said from the moment she knew she was expecting Raonaid, she was a joy.
Raonaids father Jim was the principle of the local boys' school, he shared her love of writing and they were a close family.
Raonaid was an avid reader and poetry fan, her favourite piece of writing being Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas.
She worked hard to achieve her dreams, even repeating her leaving certificate exams to try and get into a college course that would allow her to become the writer she had always wanted to be.
As a teenager, Raonaid was a beacon of love and friendship in her group of friends, affectionately deemed “the crew”.
She was a complex girl who didn’t conform, she was often seen sporting grunge inspired fashion while listening to George Michael.
Her group of friends were known as the dun laoghaire crew. They liked hanging out, listening to music, drinking, smoking weed, and just getting away from the pressures of life.
They were just a misunderstood group, but they bonded over this. A few of them had tough upbringings and problems at home but they were close and always there for one another.
Raonaid was known as the one to go to for advice or just for some support. She was witty and sharp. She was kind but not afraid to speak her mind.
She worked in a fashion boutique in the local shopping centre and was known for being friendly and kind towards everyone she met.
September 3rd 1999, a Friday like any other, Raonaid finished her shift in sally west boutique in the local shopping centre. There had been a sale on and it was a busy day, Raonaid had met with her mum in work that day to show her the bargains.
In an interview in 2009, her mum said it was a treasured memory to have spent that time with her, and after she had said “Bye mum, I’ll see you later” she never saw her alive again.
After this long day at work Raonaid met with friends in Scotts pub across the road. They sat by the window having a couple of drinks and socialising before deciding to keep the night going by heading to Paparazzi's nightclub.
Raonaid wanted to head home to change out her work clothes and get some cash first.
She left at approx. 11:20, not sure what route she took home. Her friends said she took two different routes home.
One led her from corrig road to lower glenageary road then to sillchester road and home in sillchester park.
Another route she may have taken would have been along “the metals” a laneway running alongside the DART, train tracks to sillchester road.
Either route led her to sillchester road where she turned into a laneway, locally known as “the cut”, which led to her home in sillchester park.
It was in this dark and overgrown lane that she was killed.
Raonaid had left the pub at around 11;20pm that night, she’d had a couple of drinks with her mate and said she was going home to change her clothes and get some cash. She had her outfit with her in a bag she had borrowed from work.
She told her friends she would meet them at Paparazzi’s nightclub, the local hotspot, at midnight.
No one has really been able to establish what exact route she took home but it was obvious that she was subject to a frenzied, brutal attack in a laneway very close to her house.
At around 12;30am that night her sister, Sarah, got out of a taxi at the end of the road where they lived, they noticed something on the ground and as they got closer they realized that it was Raonaid and she had been attacked.
Raonaids sister ran home to get help from her parents and brother. There was nothing they could do. Raonaid had been murdered.
Raonaid had sustained over 30 stab wounds, but most of them had barely pierced her clothes.
The killer did inflict 4 deep wounds in Raonaids side, shoulder and chest.
The fatal wound was from a severed artery caused from a puncture in her left armpit.
Despite her injuries, forensics showed that Raonaid had tried to get home, struggling forward for around 70 yards before collapsing on the path at the end of the cut. She died of shock and blood loss.
When she was found she was still holding the bag with her outfit in it.
She was not sexually assaulted or the victim of a robbery.
The murder weapon, although never found, was believed to have been a 1-and-a-half-inch blade, like a large kitchen knife or a chefs knife.
This isn't the type of knife you could conceal easily or fit in your pocket, the person who killed Raonaid either had the knife on their person from work or they set out with the intention of seriously injuring someone.
The locals were shocked and in fear, no one could understand why or how such a vicious attack could end the life of a young, well liked girl with her whole life ahead of her.
Her funeral mass was filled to capacity. Fr Eamonn McCarthy, a priest and family friend spoke of the collective grief felt by her friends and family.
A number of items important to Raonaid were brought forward by the people who loved her. These included; a teddy bear with a denim backpack, music she loved, some clothes and of course her favourite piece of literature, Under Milk Wood.
Raonaids grave was vandalised less than a year later, in June 2000, Gardai found knife marks on the cross. 2 years later her mother and sister went to visit her grave to find the cross was ripped from the ground and a teddy bear had been stolen.
Whether it was jealousy, hatred or just a disgusting pointless act of vandalism is unclear. The cross was inscribed with a line of poetry from Arthur Schopenhauer - “I believe that when death closes our eyes we will awaken to a light, of which our sunlight is only a shadow”
This was a murder that shocked the local gardai, it wasn’t something that regularly happened in this quiet suburban area of Dublin, especially not to a 17-year-old girl. Over 3500 people were interviewed since that night, and it still is the largest active murder investigation in Irish history.
Gardai could also find no motive behind the violent killing of Raonaid.
Raonaids friends have since said that they were MET with hostility by the investigating gardai, with some even saying that they had been insulted, assaulted and searched for drugs when trying to pass on important information.
It is easy to see why her friends might have clammed up when they felt as though they were treated like criminals already.
A few witnesses came forward following appeals;
Someone who lived behind the cut said that they had heard a woman saying “go away” “leave me alone” and “fuck off” before screaming. They never checked to see if something was wrong because they presumed it was just a couple arguing.
A woman said she saw Raonaid arguing with a man along upper glenageary road
Another witness said they had seen her along Corrig road
There was limited CCTV available at the time so her exact route may never be known.
There were a number of people suspected of killing Raonaid.
The first is a Taxi passenger with dark stained clothes;
A taxi driver said that he picked up a passenger about an hour after Raonaid had been killed. The male passenger said that he had been in a local nightclub, scruples, and that he wanted to get home before his girlfriend. He gave the driver an address, and seemed to be trying to cover dark coloured stains on the top of his jeans. He then changed his mind about where he wanted to go, giving the taxi drivers directions which led him to another address very close to the original address he had given. The taxi driver had suspicions that the passenger hid behind a hedge until the taxi was out of sight to avoid him seeing where he was actually going.
When Gardai investigated this passenger they found that no one who matched the description lived at the address he was dropped off at nor had anyone visited that night.
The man was later identified as a cook who worked in the area, and a year later he was convicted of an assault on a woman outside a nightclub
When he was arrested he had a knife in his possession, this could have been due to his line of work or something more sinister.
A Noel Gallagher lookalike who was seen arguing with Raonaid on her way home that night
Believed to have been arguing with Raonaid on upper glenageary road on her way home, he has never been formally identified. They seemed to know each other.
Was thought to have been wearing cream or beige combat pants and a beige or cream sweater.
Had sandy or brown shaggy hair
The third suspect was an older female who had fallen out with Raonaid in the past
She was believed to have family ties to dissident republicans, who were known to protect their own.
She was also known to be violent and had past falling outs with Raonaid, friends said she was jealous of Raonaid. One even described her as ‘psychotic’
She was questioned under caution along with her boyfriend, who was rumoured to have a fixation with Raonaid, he also resembled the man seen arguing with her that night
A friend of Raonaids said this female had called her the morning after the attack saying “Raonaid has been killed” before hanging up the phone.
This suspect denied any knowledge of Raonaids murder
She has since left the country
There have been a few complaints about the way the investigation was handled, an internal investigation showed that there was poor communication amongst investigators in the beginning as well.
Raonaids killer has been theorised to be a number of people, including Graham Dwyer who killed Elaine O’Hara in 2012 and Farah Noor, the scissor sisters victim who was known to have been a violent sexual predator and who apparently confessed before he was killed.
Other theories, more likely to be the truth are that Raonaids killer was someone known to her, likely to have been a female in her wider friend group. This is backed up by experienced profilers from the US who consulted with detectives.
Former cold case detective Alan Bailey believes the killer was someone known to Raonaid.
He said the main suspect was a man of slight build in cream or beige coloured clothing with messy hair.
He thinks that the attack wasn’t an ambush but more likely intended to disfigure. This points to a grudge attack.
Raonaids injuries were inflicted by someone small in stature. All of this matches the theory that she was attacked by a female.
As of 2019, there have been over 3500 people interviewed, 200 suspects, 22 red status suspects, 11 people arrested and questioned about the murder and 3 people arrested for withholding information. The case remains unsolved, the gardai claim they are no closer to the truth now than they were 20 years ago.
Before the 10th anniversary of Raonaids death in 2009 her mother spoke about how the loss of her daughter hasn’t lessened. She said;
"Her death has left a deep void in our lives as we never hear her coming in the door, or see her curled up on the settee listening to music or watching TV.
"It is the little ordinary things that we miss so much - the sheer joy of her presence."
A website was set up in her memory for people to pay tribute or pass on information that may help solve the case. Her brother, Daniel, was one of the first to comment he said;
“It is she who won't live. It is she who won't smile, laugh, turn 18.”
Despite appeals every year from the gardai and Raonaids family the case has gone cold. If anyone has any information they can contact Dun Laoghaire garda station on 01-6665000 or the garda confidential line on 1800-666-111
Unless someone comes forward with some information Raonaid and her family may never get the peace and justice they deserve.
SOURCES
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2kjsm11_t4 - Rainy in Glenageary
https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/letter-from-raonaid-suspect-yields-crucial-break-26225070.html https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/brutal-murder-has-mystified-gardai-and-terrified-people-in-seaside-town-1.226249
https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/did-a-jealous-love-rival-kill-raonaid-34907183.html https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/just-like-a-normal-teenager-she-raved-about-george-michaels-music-kept-her-favourite-teddy-bear-on-her-bed-talked-of-seeing-the-world-and-was-frequently-five-minutes-late-turning-up-for-her-shift-at-the-shop-26138107.html
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