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.