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MURDERED: MARIE KILMARTIN CASE - Radio Espial EP49

Marie Kilmartin, 35, of Beladd, County Laois, Ireland attended work at a local day-care nursing home (Portlaoise Area Social Services – P.A.S.S.) at 11 am on 16th December 1993.

At 3.45 pm, two of Marie's female co-workers dropped her home and watched her walk to her front door. When Marie's housemate arrived home from her job at 6 pm, she found that Marie was not there and none of the lights in their house had been switched on. The housemate also found the house alarm was set and Marie's groceries were still unpacked hanging on a kitchen chair.

A later forensic examination of Marie's home uncovered no evidence of a break-in, nor what may have led to her sudden disappearance. Gardaí did discover that around 4:20 pm on the same day, 16th December, a phone call was made to Marie's landline phone which lasted for two and a half minutes. The call was traced to a payphone in Portlaoise near St. Fintan's Hospital. A witness would later come forward stating that she saw a lone male entering the phone box near St. Fintan’s Hospital at the time the call was made. She described the man as 30 years of age, 5’6 to 5’9 in height and having dark hair. This particular individual has never been publicly identified.

She was spotted the following morning at two locales by people known to her and had some brief exchanges with them.

On 10th June 1994, six months after her disappearance, Marie’s body was discovered in Pim’s Lane near Mountmellick, County Laois, sixteen kilometres from her home. Her body was partially concealed in a bog drainage ditch with a cement block placed on it. A gas cannister and pram were also covering her remains. It is likely the receding water level had led to the discovery in the remote bog area.

A post-mortem revealed she had been strangled. This is the Timeline and analysis of the Marie Kilmartin case.

 

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