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.

Comments

Radio Espial: Episode 23: Missing - The Annie McCarrick Case

Annie Bridget McCarrick (born March 27th, 1966), an American woman from Long Island, New York, went missing under suspicious circumstances in 1993 while she was residing in Ireland. Radio Espial's Mick Rooney explores the timeline and events surrounding her disappearance. McCarrick was born on Long Island, New York and she grew up and lived in Bayport until her move to Ireland in January 1987, aged 19, to study at St Patrick’s College for Teacher Training in Drumcondra. She later switched colleges and instead decided to study Irish Literature at Maynooth University for three years. For two years she was in a relationship with Dermot Ryan, a period when Annie was renting and sharing a small cottage with a female friend in Ballyboden, Dublin. In 1990, she returned to New York and after a four-month period, the relationship with Ryan petered out. He returned to Ireland and later decided to move to Italy. Annie instead remained in New York and spent two years in the US studying for a m...

The Disappearance of Alpho O’Reilly | Ireland’s Unsolved Mystery (E77)

In January 1996, Alpho O’Reilly — one of Ireland’s most celebrated designers and a respected figure in Dublin’s theatre world — vanished without a trace. Last seen in the early hours of the morning at a petrol station in Co. Wicklow, the 73-year-old drove off in his green Mitsubishi Colt and was never seen again. His car has never been recovered. His passport remained at home. His bank account was never touched. Nearly 30 years later, his disappearance remains one of Ireland’s most baffling cold cases. Who was Alpho O’Reilly, and what really happened on that winter night in 1996? This video explores the life, career, and mysterious disappearance of Alpho O’Reilly — from his groundbreaking work at RTÉ and in Dublin theatre, to the unanswered questions that still haunt this case.

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.

Search This Blog