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MASTER & SLAVE: The Sadistic Murder of Elaine O'Hara

Elaine O'Hara went missing from her home on 22nd August 2012. It was initially assumed she had disappeared while volunteering at the 2012 Tall Ships' Races in Dublin. Inside her house, however, she had left her bag, purse, and mobile phone, and security footage would later reveal her leaving her home with a different phone.

She was last seen by a jogger in Shanganagh Park in the county of Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown just to the south of Shankill, Dublin. It was later determined that she had gone to Shanganagh Cemetery, where her mother was buried. A woman was heard crying loudly in the graveyard by another witness. This witness saw a woman, fitting O'Hara's general description, crying beside an old grave, but she could not positively identify her as Elaine O'Hara.

Elaine’s car was later found nearby, and it was assumed she had, given her psychological history, committed suicide by jumping off the nearby cliffs.

In September 2013, more than a year after Elaine’s disappearance, a dog trainer discovered bones in wooded land near Kilakee in the foothills of the Dublin Mountains. Elaine's body was later identified through dental records. But this was just the beginning of one of Ireland’s most sordid and sadistic murders.

In reality, Irish police had been honing their investigation in on one man known to Elaine within days of her disappearance. Master and Slave is the story of Elaine O’Hara’s disappearance and the pursuit of a sadistic killer.

 

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