'The truth always screams to be heard' new plea to solve Laois murder of Marie Kilmartin

The daughter of a woman who was murdered in Laois 32 years ago and whose killer was never caught, is again asking the Portlaoise public to come forward with answers.

Marie Kilmartin's murder is the focus of an episode in a new TG4 television series and podcast, Marú inár Measc.

She had vanished aged 34 in December 1993 and in June 1994 her decomposed body was discovered by walkers, in a bog outside Mountmellick, having been strangled to death.

This launched a Garda murder investigation that has never yielded any results.

Her adopted daughter Áine has spoken emotionally calling for justice.

“I’ve been intensely doing my own investigation. Here I am at 44 trying to solve it. I do believe it will be solved because somebody has to talk. The truth always screams to be heard."

She spoke on the programme at a memorial cross in the bog where her mother was found in a bog drain.

“This is a very lonely and bleak place. Marie was just left here like rubbish.

“I was taken from her at a few days old. I’m hearing things now in my forties about my mother’s life. A life I should have been part of.

“I don’t know if it was one person or more than one that was involved in Marie’s murder. I don’t know what secrets they were trying to hide, but I know that the truth will come out one day.

“It’s been 20 years since I started looking into Marie's case. It’s been very difficult. It’s like getting a wall in my face all the time but it’s actually just making me more determined to find answers.

“I think there are people in Portlaoise town who have answers and for whatever reason they might be protecting someone whose alive or dead,” she said.

She wears the gold locket that was found on her mother’s remains, given to her by her mother's housemate.

“Patricia Doyle gave the locket to Marie and Patricia gave it to me when I visited her in 2004. I didn’t have those shared things, like going shopping, that you usually have with your mother. Some people say you don’t miss what you never had, but that’s not the case”.

Cllr Tommy Mulligan from Portlaoise spoke on the documentary which tells the history of Galway native's life in Portlaoise.

Cllr Tommy Mulligan speaking on Marú Inár Measc. 

“She was a quiet woman, kind, a nervous woman. The Portlaoise public would like to see an end to this awful tragic case. All the questions are still there,” he said.

He said people feared a serial killer link to other cases including the still missing young Mountmellick woman Imelda Keenan.

Retired prison officer and general election candidate Austin Stack recalls the time.

“People were shocked. That the body was dumped in the drain, the callousness of that alone, shocked a lot of people. Everybody in the town knew Marie. We knew that she had been a patient in the psychiatric hospital and that she was well enough to live in the community. Even though everyone knew that Marie was vulnerable, she was always very happy and a pleasant person.

“There was a lot of rumour in the town as to who was involved,” he said.

Read also: 'Substantial reward' offered for information on Marie Kilmartin.

The programme describes how Marie Kilmartin came to the town from Ballinasloe while pregnant in 1980 and was placed into St Fintan’s Psychiatric Hospital, sent back there days after giving birth to Áine who was adopted by family friends.

In 1981 she moved out to a flat to live with a psychiatric nurse Patricia Doyle who had become a friend and they moved to a house in Beladd bought by the Kilmartins.

They lived there until Ms Kilmartin disappeared in December 1993, aged 34. She had made a life in Portlaoise, working as a volunteer in a centre for older people. She had begun guitar lessons, played badminton and bingo and did a flower arranging course.

“She didn’t like being out at night, and she liked being with people that she knew”, retired Detective Chief Superintendent John O'Brien said on the TG4 show.

“It is a fact unfortunately that most people are killed by somebody that they knew. In Marie’s case, that would be a very strong possibility.

“I’m sure that there’s one, two or three individuals still living in Portlaoise, that if they cared to open their mouths, could tell us to a very high degree of certainty what happened to Marie,” he said.

Áine only found out aged 20 that Marie was her mother, six years after her death.

“A few times in my childhood Marie came to the house. She seemed like she was great fun. I mourned Marie even though I didn’t know she was my mother, back when I was 14. My soul knew. I just cried and kept on crying.” she said.

On the day she disappeared, Ms Kilmartin had been at a Christmas party in the care centre. She had her bag packed and presents bought to go to her family in Galway for Christmas.

As darkness fell she was dropped home to Beladd by friends, waving goodbye to them at the door. It was the last time she was ever seen.

She left the immersion on and the alarm set, with a phone call to her house suspected as being the reason she left suddenly. The next day, two women reported seeing her at different locations. Both said she seemed upset. A man was also seen in the nearby phone box at the time of the call.

However Gardaí say nothing evidential came out of the sightings. A Garda and media campaign began, with posters and appeals at Mass.

Six months later in June 1994, her body was found by a walker in a drain in an bog between Mountmellick and Portarlington, a flagstone and gas cylinder weighing it down. It was badly decomposed, but she was identified by dental records and her clothes and jewellery.

Garda then began a murder investigation. They arrested two men who were questioned but released and not charged.

In 2007, Marie’s case was publicised again and Áine launched her own campaign, handing out leaflets and contacting all politicians. She even reached out to the suspects, to “come forward and lessen their own burden”.

In 2008, the same two men were arrested again and questioned, as was the wife of one. All were released and no-one was ever charged.

The Garda Press Office confirmed to the Leinster Express that it is an ongoing, active investigation by Gardaí at Portlaoise Serious Crime Unit under a Senior Investigating Officer. It said the investigation has been subject of ongoing review.

An Garda Síochána continues to appeal to the public for information. Contact Portlaoise Garda station on 057 8674100, the Garda Confidential Line 1800 666 111 or any Garda station. Watch Marú Inár Measc online here.