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THE LAST DAYS OF MASON O'CONNELL-CONWAY (E84)

The murder of four-year-old Mason O’Connell-Conway is one of the most disturbing child abuse cases in modern Irish history. On 13 March 2021, emergency services were called to a home in Rathbane, County Limerick, after it was reported that Mason had fallen from a bunk bed and could not be woken. But what doctors discovered told a very different story. Mason had suffered catastrophic injuries — including severe head trauma and a lacerated liver — injuries that experts said were consistent with sustained abuse, not an accident. Just three days later, on 16 March 2021, Mason died in hospital. Investigations would reveal that in the weeks leading up to his death, Mason had been subjected to repeated physical punishment, isolation, and abuse inside the home where he was meant to be safe. In 2024, his father was sentenced to seven years in prison for neglect, child endangerment, and assisting an offender. In 2026, Tegan McGhee was sentenced to life imprisonment for his murder. This episode i...
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Céline Cawley: The Howth Murder Case Timeline - Radio Espial [EP83]

Céline Cawley was a Dublin-based film producer whose death in Howth in December 2008 became one of Ireland’s most closely examined criminal cases. This Radio Espial Timeline documents the established sequence of events, placing key moments in chronological order and examining how the investigation unfolded. The timeline is victim-centred and includes personal insight from Céline’s daughter, Georgia, providing context on the impact of the events and their aftermath. This documentary-style timeline focuses on facts, location, and chronology rather than speculation, contributing to the wider record of Irish true crime and criminal justice history.  
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Jessie Earl | A Timeline of Delayed Justice - Radio Espial (EP82)

In May 1980, 22-year-old art student Jessie Earl disappeared from her home in Eastbourne. When her remains were discovered nine years later near Beachy Head, the case should have changed everything. Instead, her death was met with an open verdict, lost evidence, and decades of unanswered questions. This Radio Espial episode examines the disappearance of Jessie Earl, the circumstances surrounding the discovery of her body, and the long campaign by her family to have her death formally recognised as murder. In 2022, more than forty years after Jessie vanished, a new inquest finally ruled that she was unlawfully killed by a third party.  No one has ever been charged with Jessie's murder.  
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MURDERED: THE CASE OF MARILYN RYNN (E81)

In the early hours of December 22nd, 1995, a 41-year-old woman stepped off a night bus just minutes from home. She had been laughing with friends only hours earlier, celebrating Christmas in the heart of Dublin. But in a dark shortcut through Tolka Valley Park, Marilyn Rynn’s journey ended in brutal violence. Her murder would shock Ireland—and quietly change criminal investigations forever, becoming the first case in the country to be solved by DNA. Radio Espial presents the first ever comprehensive timeline of her case.  
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MISSING: MONICA RIORDAN - 2011 (E80)

On the morning of Tuesday, December 20th, 2011, 39-year-old Monica Riordan left her workplace at Pobal on Holles Street in Dublin. By nightfall, she had vanished. Originally from Finglas and living in Navan, Co. Meath, Monica was seen several times throughout Dublin city centre that day. CCTV captured her movements as she appeared increasingly disoriented and distressed, making multiple emergency calls and walking alone through the Docklands in cold, wet conditions. Her mobile phone was later found near the Grand Canal, and weeks later her handbag was recovered from the River Liffey. Despite extensive searches, Garda appeals, and tireless efforts by her family and colleagues, Monica was never found. In this episode of Radio Espial - True Crime, we reconstruct Monica Riordan’s final known day through a detailed timeline — tracing confirmed sightings, public appeals, investigative efforts, and the inquest findings — while keeping the focus on facts, compassion, and the unanswered quest...
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WHAT LIES BENEATH - ELISA LAM CASE (EP79)

The mysterious death of Elisa Lam remains one of the most infamous and misunderstood true-crime cases of the decade. In January 2013, 21-year-old Canadian student Elisa Lam vanished while staying at the notorious Cecil Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. When she failed to make her daily check-in call home, a missing persons investigation began—but what followed would ignite a global firestorm. When the LAPD released elevator CCTV showing Elisa behaving erratically—pressing buttons, hiding, stepping in and out of the elevator as if reacting to something unseen—the internet exploded. The video went viral overnight, spawning conspiracy theories, online sleuth communities, accusations, and global speculation. Everyone believed they knew the truth. Three weeks later, Elisa’s body was discovered in a rooftop water tank after guests complained of discoloured water and low pressure. Her death became the centre of lawsuits, media sensationalism, and endless online myths—all while the real story bec...
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WHAT HAPPENED BROOKE PICKARD? - RADIO ESPIAL (E78)

In April 1991, 43-year-old Charles Brooke Pickard vanished without a trace after being abducted at gunpoint from White Strand Beach in Castlecove, County Kerry. Weeks later, his burned-out navy Ford Transit van was discovered deep in a forest near Waterville — but Pickard was never found. What unfolded was a chilling investigation spanning decades, revealing a meticulously planned abduction involving men from both Northern and Southern Ireland. While early theories pointed to paramilitary involvement, Gardaí and the PSNI would later dismiss that angle, suggesting instead that either a deeply personal local grievance or rumours and misinformation may have been the true motive behind one of Ireland’s most haunting unsolved murders.  
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