The search for the remains of Annie McCarrick at a house in Dublin was due to continue through the weekend after the man questioned on suspicion of her murder was released from Garda custody without charge on Friday afternoon.
The businessman, aged in his 60s, who knew Ms McCarrick well, was interviewed for a total of 24 hours in the period since his arrest on Thursday morning when his home in the east of the country was also searched.
He denies any wrongdoing in relation to the disappearance of New Yorker Ms McCarrick (26) from Sandymount, South Dublin, in March, 1993, or her murder.
“The male aged in his 60s who was arrested on the morning of 12th June, 2025, and detained under the provisions of Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act 1984 has been released without charge,” the Garda confirmed in a statement.
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On being released from Irishtown Garda station at about 3pm he was met by waiting photographers and TV camera crews before being driven away.
Gardaí on Friday afternoon brought a cadaver dog into the search at the house in Clondalkin in the event the dog may respond when checking the rear of the property where excavation had taken place. The Garda search team used diggers, a consaw and a Kango hammer to excavate in an area that includes some built structures.
Before the search began on Thursday morning, skips with construction waste were seen outside the house as renovation work was under way. However, The Irish Times has established that nothing connected to Ms McCarrick was found during the recent work at the house to prompt the Garda excavation.
Instead, the search and excavation, and the arrest of the main suspect, were pre-planned on the part of the Garda investigation team. The house was being searched because the suspect was linked to it. . The current owners of the property, who bought it in 2011, have no connection to the murdered woman or the Garda investigation.
The suspect was arrested by detectives from the Garda’s Dublin south-central division’s serious crime unit based at Irishtown Garda station. He knew Ms McCarrick and was at one time very close to her.
He was flagged to gardaí as a possible suspect in the case in the immediate aftermath of the New Yorker’s disappearance. Friends of Ms McCarrick were concerned about the man as she had told them she felt pressured and harassed by him and that he had struck her on one occasion.
Ms McCarrick’s friends outlined those concerns in fax messages to the Garda investigation team. They have always believed the information they supplied was not properly handled and was not factored into the initial inquiry in any meaningful way.
However, in recent years – particularly since the case was upgraded from a missing persons inquiry to a murder investigation two years ago – the man arrested and since released became the key suspect.
Gardaí are also very interested in a close associate of his and travelled abroad earlier this year to interview him. Detectives believe the two men were together on the weekend Ms McCarrick vanished. Both men were interviewed in 1993 and have been spoken to several times in the years since then.
In March 1993, Ms McCarrick, from Long Island, New York, was living in rented accommodation at St Cathryn’s Court, Sandymount, with two friends. They last spoke to her at the property on the morning of Friday, March 26th.
Amid mounting concerns for her safety, Ms McCarrick was reported missing to gardaí that Sunday, more than 48 hours after her last confirmed sighting.
