Unsolved

In October of 1986, on an ordinary Autumn Thursday, 13-year-old Philip Cairns disappeared. He had just finished lunch at his house in Rathfarnham, Dublin 16 and was walking back to school for his afternoon classes down quiet suburban lanes when he vanished into thin air.
To this day Philip is one of the most well-known missing persons cases in Ireland. Despite almost 40 years of nationwide searches and appeals, no one has ever been arrested and Philip has never been found. If you have any information, please contact our tipline - unsolved@rte.ie
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this special episode of Unsolved, documentary maker Peter Mulryan of Pirate Predator joins Barry and Katja to exclusively reveal a new development in the case of missing schoolboy Philip Cairns, who disappeared almost 40 years ago, in October 1986.
In 2016, a female witness gave a statement to Gardai alleging that in October 1986, when she was nine years old, she was in the company of Eamonn Cooke when he picked up a boy she identified as Philip Cairns in his car, brought him to the radio Dublin studios and physically assaulted him. Her witness statement was not pursued by Gardai in 2016 due to questions about her witness timeline.
As the 40th anniversary of Philip's disappearance approaches this October, Doc on One have unearthed new information which could provide new leads in Philip's case and Pirate Predator producer/presenter Peter Mulryan joins us in today's special episode of Unsolved to talk us through them. As part of her statement, the witness alleged that missing schoolboy Philip Cairns was in the company of Eamon Cooke the day of his disappearance. The new evidence supports a crucial detail provided by a witness, whose account had previously been dismissed by investigators.
Get in touch at unsolved@rte.ie
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In January 1993, 26-year-old New Yorker Annie McCarrick moved to Dublin to build the life she'd long dreamed of. Two months later, she was gone, never to be seen again.
As a crime journalist, Barry reported on Annie's case in good faith with what he thought were hard facts for over two decades. But those facts were called into question in 2023. Nothing in this case was as it seemed.
In part 2 of our series on Annie McCarrick, we follow the full twists and turns of the investigation into the disappearance of Annie McCarrick from March 1993, up to and including the reclassification of her case to murder in 2023 and beyond, including the arrest of a person of interest and forensic search of a house in 2025.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In January 1993, 26-year-old New Yorker Annie McCarrick moved to Dublin to build the life she'd long dreamed of. Two months later, she was gone, never to be seen again.
In Part One, Barry Cummins and Katja Mia trace Annie's story from Long Island to Sandymount, from her Irish-American childhood to her years at Maynooth, and the ordinary Friday morning in March 1993 when she was seen for the very last time.
They follow her final known movements and ask why sightings reported as fact for three decades are now in question. Plus: information sent from America in 1993 that never reached the detectives who needed it.


Annie McCarrick's case remains Unsolved. Part Two is out next Wednesday. Get in touch at unsolved@rte.ie
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the summer of 1987, Antoinette Smith went to see David Bowie in concert at Slane Castle and never came home.
Aged just 27, Antoinette was a full-time mother of two, so the rare night out was extra exciting. Antoinette kissed her daughters goodbye on that sunny July day, not knowing she would never see them again. Her body was found nine months later in tragic and horrifying circumstances.
In Part two of our series on the murder of Antoinette Smith, we delve into the murder investigation that has spanned almost four decades, starting with her body's tragic discovery during a child's game of hide and seek in the Dublin mountains in 1988.
Get in touch at unsolved@rte.ie
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.