MISSING OR MURDERED? DEAN ROCHE CASE

MISSING OR MURDERED? DEAN ROCHE CASE - Radio Espial EP48

On Sunday, March 22nd, 2015, 31-year-old Dean Roche set out from his home at Hebron Park, County Kilkenny, Ireland by taxi to travel to Ballyfoyle, a journey north through the county of about 20 mins plus. Dean Roche had travelled there to purchase a cheap car he had spotted for sale on social media.

He reached the car seller’s private property and after about an hour completed the sale and received the car logbook. After leaving the seller, he crashed the car a short distance away and headed back on foot in the direction he had come.

The events of the rest of that evening remain clouded in mystery as to what did and what specifically occurred. What is certain is that several incidents of trespassing and attempted house burglary were reported to local gardai that night, and an incident of a car stolen from the premises of a resident.

Dean Roche was reported by witnesses to have been in the general Ballyfoyle area that night after 9 pm. Later, a woollen Manchester United hat and a pair of runners (sneakers) were found in searched fields. It has never been established if the runners belonged to Dean. Dean Roche was formally reported missing by his family two days later when he still had not returned home to Hebron Park.

Despite extensive searches of the area over the next three years by skilled members of the gardai forces aided by search and rescue teams, as well as the army, also private searches by his family and friends, Dean was never found.

Nine years have passed and the case remains shrouded in limited information released by gardai and consistent local rumours and innuendo. The mystery of what happened to Dean Roche on March 22nd, 2015 lie embedded in the Ballyfoyle locale he visited that evening.

This is one of the most complex and bizarre cases Radio Espial has every covered with a Timeline Analysis. The timeline will be short for a reason. We want to keep basic facts, and while respecting the views of family members—we must try to decipher what was most probable and what was least likely to have happened.

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