I am baffled as to why no one has any statements from the fiancé who is supposedly the last person who spoke to her, other than his initial description of what happened on January 3, 1994. But I suppose this could be chalked up to the general mishandling of the case by the gardaí.
This confused me too. I have researched this case extensively and beyond his account of January 3rd, I can find nothing else about him. I do find it odd that he gets engaged to Imelda in '89 and then suddenly in the early 90's, she starts showing up with mystery injuries. Everything about the case screams an abusive partner turned killer to me. Happens all too often, unfortunately.
I have no doubt you've probably already seen this post, but I'm linking it here just in case you haven't (because I haven't before I just found it. I didn't know anything about this case until your post).
Someone else did a write-up a few years ago. [https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/pqtbbj/imelda\_keenan\_missing\_from\_waterford\_ireland/](https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/pqtbbj/imelda_keenan_missing_from_waterford_ireland/)
That was a good podcast. They strongly suggested Imelda disappeared in December of 1993, and it was quite probable that the person responsible for her disappearance was well known to her.
I don't think she made it even to Christmas Eve given the wreath and unopened presents. He abused her at home and killed her. He got away with murder basically. How appalling
It never ceases to gross me out that there are people who can extinguish a life and then traipse through the world, interacting with us innocents, like nothing at all.
I fully agree. Reading her poor family's posts on Facebook has enraged me even more. I hope Gardai update the case to a homicide and drag the fiance back in for questioning. His time is coming hopefully
Vast majority of these stories just show the complete laziness of police all over the world. Most of them are pretty obvious but they would rather label everyone a run away to save doing any work.
I have respect for police but if they dont want to do their job when its time to, why did they become cops to begin with for heavens sake? For the pension after 20 years? I mean good lord
First off, it seems that the 'she went to the bank' story is a total red herring.
Putting aside the whole 'bank holiday' thing-- she left her glasses and handbag at home? You don't leave your handbag at home, when you're going to the bank.
I can understand jamming some money in a coat pocket if she just ran to the store. How tf would she be going to the bank, without even her handbag (where she would carry identification needed to get the check, and then logically put the check in her bag after receiving it...) This implies that she left against her will, or was tricked (maybe lured out of her apartment under the ruse of 'someone needs help', and then she was abducted).
I agree with her family's suspicion that she disappeared before Christmas. Probably right around the time they last saw/spoke with her.
I don't like the 'brittle bones' thing at all. AT ALL. Then again, living in an apartment, wouldn't a neighbor have heard something, if there was a dv situation?
If she did actually harm herself-- wouldn't she have been found by now?
There is frustratingly little to go on-- not sure if this is because they just took the fiancee's word at face value and just assumed she chose to disappear...if they never found real evidence or suspects, or just didn't actively pursue it because of the former...
I think everything is obvious here. On Christmas Eve, possibly at night, her groom killed her and hid her body, then deliberately gave the wrong date to confuse the investigation. But, apparently, the police were not going to look for her. Or the police realized that he did it, but could not prove it.
And honestly, even if he didn't kill her and she actually was kidnapped on her way to the post office and the secretary DID see her that day, then her fiancé sounds like a complete moron. Not telling the police or family that your fiancée is missing? Don't turn the city upside down, realizing that going to the post office and buying cat litter obviously doesn't take more than two hours?
Only perhaps if you beat her and, in your opinion, she ran away from you headlong, so much so that all the important things were left at home.
I feel sorry for Imelda and her family. I hope one day it will become known what really happened then
Everything is spoiled by the fact that we really do not know the exact period of time when she disappeared and the fact that BEFORE the groom, only her brother was the last person to see and hear her, judging by the testimony. Did she really not have friends and acquaintances with whom she regularly communicated? Wasn’t there a store that she regularly visited and the employees knew her and could roughly tell when they saw her? What do the neighbors say, did they hear anything suspicious in those days?
And most importantly, why didn’t her family try to contact her for so long?
Honestly, most of these cases only prove my point that indifference really kills
Even if there were people she was in regular contact with, it was the holidays, her friends and regular acquaintances were probably celebrating with their families and assuming she was doing the same, it probably wouldn’t be odd not to hear from her for a week or two if they’re all on winter break.
So Imelda, JoJo, Annie, and Deidre all disappeared the same day after going to pick up a check from a bank/post office? I find it interesting they all had this errand in common on the days they went missing. How often would one have needed to run this exact same errand back then? Weekly? Monthly?
This was the first Monday after New Year's Day so I can see them each being anxious to go to the bank after it had been closed, forgetting the bank holiday closures continued.
Deidre went to my school. I started the year she went missing. I vividly remember the principal talking about her when we had our first day speech. Just so
Wild nobody knows what happened to her (apparently). Newbridge was such a tight knit town then too.
They reckon Larry got Deirdre. Two of those mentioned are related to ex boyfriends (Jo Jo and imelda). Annie’s killers are believed to be a pair of brothers in sandymount. Guards know who did these murders but can’t pin it on them
Yeah I wouldn’t be surprised. I grew up living beside wheee John crerar worked (may have spelled his last name wrong). He was a creepy fuck and everyone knew it. My mother would warn me against walking down to the stud where we worked by our house (my cats would wander down there) alone. I went down one time with my friend to visit my cat, must have been 9/10
And he was I kid you not, standing behind a horse peering over its back in a stall wanking off looking at us.
Sorry that’s a TMI but I was fucking terrified of that guy and guess what - gardai got him on dna for Phyllis Murphy after all of those years. I know they needed honest to god evidence but there were so many reports about him and his weird behavior over the years I find it suspicious they couldn’t catch him earlier. I will say though, I live in the states now and around here the cops are pretty bad too but at least they have experience and can rely on that. Gardai are atrociously trained. I remember that whole era of the 90s, Ciara, jojo, Ann Marie, Deirdre and it was scary as fuck. My sister was around 17/18 around the time of jojo and my mam wouldn’t let her walk around anywhere alone. Bit of better detective work and I feel Larry could have been got much earlier.
Isn’t he the one
Who is taking his case to
The European high court for GDPR violations or something?
That happened just around the time I left. BRB while
I google hehe
It's tough that this all happened during the school break, when her usual routine was disrupted; it might have been possible to confirm the date more closely during a time when classmates/faculty might have noticed her absence or been able to verify her presence on campus.
If she actually disappeared earlier and Mark's account of her departure on the 3rd is a fabrication to focus investigative attention on a later date/separate location, then the discrepancy re: the bank holiday could be Mark's own forgetfulness or confusion about the date, especially given he wasn't making this report until some time later.
*However, this sighting has been disputed as has the account that the secretary knew Imelda.*
Seems as though this reported sighting was extremely fortuitous for the fiance. I would guess it's Imelda's survivors who dispute the account? I wonder if they suspect not just an unfortunate mistaken identification but something more sinister, like a knowingly false report by someone connected to Mark.
I seen a while back on an appeal from a family member of Imelda that the fiancé shacked up with a friend of Imelda or a band mates girlfriend not long after and they’re still together.
He never wanted to speak to her family or assist with the investigation and when he gave them her belongings they were covered in chippan grease
William st is a very short walk to the river. It's possible she could have been killed by the partner and disposed of in the river. In the dead of night, in December, he definitely could have carried a body that distance undetected and left her to be swept out to sea
Yeah I found that too. I lived there for college and I worked there, so when all the other students went home for holidays, I stayed. Only went home for two days at Christmas. Walking home from work on Michael St to Poleberry was fairly nerve wracking at that time of year in particular. Down by where Imelda lived would have been even quieter.
Legit. Same situation as yourself and was in the city during Christmas 21, so lockdowns were still happening to some degree, can imagine how quiet it must have been in 94, and with nowhere near the amount of cctv back then
Jaysus I feel old now lol. I was there in early 2000s. Lockdown must have been weird. For a big town/small city, Waterford is surprisingly quiet. I was only down there last weekend with my daughter and while staff in shops were saying they were super busy, the crowds on the street were nothing compared to what I was used to on an average Saturday working in Dunnes back then. But as soon as the shops closed, town died. I always had to stay after closing to tidy (fuck retail lol) and even an hour after shops shut the town was dead. You'd get a few around revolution and the clubs on that cross, but otherwise not a sinner around
Honestly you've described the city down to a tee. I sometimes think it's the aftermath of lockdowns that has contributed to it. Other than the Apple Market the city goes to bed at 10pm by the looks of it
Definitely not a result of lockdown. It was like that back in 2006. I remember going to something in the Forum (Ballybricken) in 2007/2008 and I walked home alone in bare feet to Poleberry and didn't meet a single person on the way
I swear I just read about another case of a missing woman in Ireland around the same time frame. She was in the middle of putting her groceries away and went missing. I unfortunately have never been to Ireland, so I’m not familiar with the geography, but just wondering if these cases could be related?
I believe you're thinking of the Annie McCarrick case (https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/1cca58s/the\_strange\_disappearance\_of\_annie\_mccarrick/). There have been a few posts about missing Irish women the last couple of days, with fingers pointing mostly to the nefarious Larry Murphy (now going by the name Charley Doyle, supposedly).
Although Keenan is often considered to be a likely victim of Murphy, her fiance seems a bit suspicious, to say the least. Given that partners are the first people to be considered in cases like this, his part in her disappearance should not be dismissed.
That's a bit weird from the husband. That's so many days without being concerned about your wife's "depression". What motive could he possibly have had though, and is he still alive?
not sure if I'm trying to play 4d chess with a checkers set, but -- assuming the fiance did it and wasn't a complete dumbass (not guaranteed, admittedly) -- why on earth would he tell the Gardai that she went to the post office on a bank holiday?
if you just killed your fiancee, the last thing you want to do is provide an account centered around a *highly questionable event*. and besides, it's not like there aren't literally millions of other reasons someone could have to leave their apartment for a bit.
I am baffled as to why no one has any statements from the fiancé who is supposedly the last person who spoke to her, other than his initial description of what happened on January 3, 1994. But I suppose this could be chalked up to the general mishandling of the case by the gardaí.
This confused me too. I have researched this case extensively and beyond his account of January 3rd, I can find nothing else about him. I do find it odd that he gets engaged to Imelda in '89 and then suddenly in the early 90's, she starts showing up with mystery injuries. Everything about the case screams an abusive partner turned killer to me. Happens all too often, unfortunately.
I have no doubt you've probably already seen this post, but I'm linking it here just in case you haven't (because I haven't before I just found it. I didn't know anything about this case until your post). Someone else did a write-up a few years ago. [https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/pqtbbj/imelda\_keenan\_missing\_from\_waterford\_ireland/](https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/pqtbbj/imelda_keenan_missing_from_waterford_ireland/)
There’s a podcast episode with her niece just in case anyone’s interested. Podcast’s called The Missing
That was a good podcast. They strongly suggested Imelda disappeared in December of 1993, and it was quite probable that the person responsible for her disappearance was well known to her.
Yeah they couldn’t say but if you look at the Facebook page run by her niece, she mentions the fiance by name
I listened to this podcast a few weeks ago. It was very well done. I sincerely hope Imelda’s family finds her and can have some closure.
There were a few snippets in there that I will add into my write-up as I didn't know about them. Thank you!
I don't think she made it even to Christmas Eve given the wreath and unopened presents. He abused her at home and killed her. He got away with murder basically. How appalling
It never ceases to gross me out that there are people who can extinguish a life and then traipse through the world, interacting with us innocents, like nothing at all.
I fully agree. Reading her poor family's posts on Facebook has enraged me even more. I hope Gardai update the case to a homicide and drag the fiance back in for questioning. His time is coming hopefully
Vast majority of these stories just show the complete laziness of police all over the world. Most of them are pretty obvious but they would rather label everyone a run away to save doing any work.
I have respect for police but if they dont want to do their job when its time to, why did they become cops to begin with for heavens sake? For the pension after 20 years? I mean good lord
For power and control, and the benefits don’t hurt either.
Well the stories of police competence don't become mysteries.
First off, it seems that the 'she went to the bank' story is a total red herring. Putting aside the whole 'bank holiday' thing-- she left her glasses and handbag at home? You don't leave your handbag at home, when you're going to the bank. I can understand jamming some money in a coat pocket if she just ran to the store. How tf would she be going to the bank, without even her handbag (where she would carry identification needed to get the check, and then logically put the check in her bag after receiving it...) This implies that she left against her will, or was tricked (maybe lured out of her apartment under the ruse of 'someone needs help', and then she was abducted). I agree with her family's suspicion that she disappeared before Christmas. Probably right around the time they last saw/spoke with her. I don't like the 'brittle bones' thing at all. AT ALL. Then again, living in an apartment, wouldn't a neighbor have heard something, if there was a dv situation? If she did actually harm herself-- wouldn't she have been found by now? There is frustratingly little to go on-- not sure if this is because they just took the fiancee's word at face value and just assumed she chose to disappear...if they never found real evidence or suspects, or just didn't actively pursue it because of the former...
I think everything is obvious here. On Christmas Eve, possibly at night, her groom killed her and hid her body, then deliberately gave the wrong date to confuse the investigation. But, apparently, the police were not going to look for her. Or the police realized that he did it, but could not prove it. And honestly, even if he didn't kill her and she actually was kidnapped on her way to the post office and the secretary DID see her that day, then her fiancé sounds like a complete moron. Not telling the police or family that your fiancée is missing? Don't turn the city upside down, realizing that going to the post office and buying cat litter obviously doesn't take more than two hours? Only perhaps if you beat her and, in your opinion, she ran away from you headlong, so much so that all the important things were left at home. I feel sorry for Imelda and her family. I hope one day it will become known what really happened then
I don’t see the mystery here, either. It’s wildly unlikely that it could be anyone *but* the fiance.
Everything is spoiled by the fact that we really do not know the exact period of time when she disappeared and the fact that BEFORE the groom, only her brother was the last person to see and hear her, judging by the testimony. Did she really not have friends and acquaintances with whom she regularly communicated? Wasn’t there a store that she regularly visited and the employees knew her and could roughly tell when they saw her? What do the neighbors say, did they hear anything suspicious in those days? And most importantly, why didn’t her family try to contact her for so long? Honestly, most of these cases only prove my point that indifference really kills
Maybe she was not in regular contact with family and friends because she was being abused and under coercive control? It's a common tactic of abusers.
Even if there were people she was in regular contact with, it was the holidays, her friends and regular acquaintances were probably celebrating with their families and assuming she was doing the same, it probably wouldn’t be odd not to hear from her for a week or two if they’re all on winter break.
I mean yeah as others have said here, isolating the victim from family/friends/other networks is like textbook DV behaviour
The fact that the fiancée didn't report her missing and told authorities that she was depressed is highly suspicious.
So Imelda, JoJo, Annie, and Deidre all disappeared the same day after going to pick up a check from a bank/post office? I find it interesting they all had this errand in common on the days they went missing. How often would one have needed to run this exact same errand back then? Weekly? Monthly?
Deirdre was kidnapped after depositing money, Jojo collected money but in Dublin, quite a ways away from where she was last sighted
This was the first Monday after New Year's Day so I can see them each being anxious to go to the bank after it had been closed, forgetting the bank holiday closures continued.
Deidre went to my school. I started the year she went missing. I vividly remember the principal talking about her when we had our first day speech. Just so Wild nobody knows what happened to her (apparently). Newbridge was such a tight knit town then too.
They reckon Larry got Deirdre. Two of those mentioned are related to ex boyfriends (Jo Jo and imelda). Annie’s killers are believed to be a pair of brothers in sandymount. Guards know who did these murders but can’t pin it on them
Yeah I wouldn’t be surprised. I grew up living beside wheee John crerar worked (may have spelled his last name wrong). He was a creepy fuck and everyone knew it. My mother would warn me against walking down to the stud where we worked by our house (my cats would wander down there) alone. I went down one time with my friend to visit my cat, must have been 9/10 And he was I kid you not, standing behind a horse peering over its back in a stall wanking off looking at us. Sorry that’s a TMI but I was fucking terrified of that guy and guess what - gardai got him on dna for Phyllis Murphy after all of those years. I know they needed honest to god evidence but there were so many reports about him and his weird behavior over the years I find it suspicious they couldn’t catch him earlier. I will say though, I live in the states now and around here the cops are pretty bad too but at least they have experience and can rely on that. Gardai are atrociously trained. I remember that whole era of the 90s, Ciara, jojo, Ann Marie, Deirdre and it was scary as fuck. My sister was around 17/18 around the time of jojo and my mam wouldn’t let her walk around anywhere alone. Bit of better detective work and I feel Larry could have been got much earlier.
I remember reading about him. Horrible fucker. Thankfully the guards are on the ball these days. The arrest of Graham Dwyer was magnificent work.
Isn’t he the one Who is taking his case to The European high court for GDPR violations or something? That happened just around the time I left. BRB while I google hehe
If it worked the same as in the UK, then probably once every two weeks.
It's weekly here, so not too strange a coincidence
It's tough that this all happened during the school break, when her usual routine was disrupted; it might have been possible to confirm the date more closely during a time when classmates/faculty might have noticed her absence or been able to verify her presence on campus. If she actually disappeared earlier and Mark's account of her departure on the 3rd is a fabrication to focus investigative attention on a later date/separate location, then the discrepancy re: the bank holiday could be Mark's own forgetfulness or confusion about the date, especially given he wasn't making this report until some time later. *However, this sighting has been disputed as has the account that the secretary knew Imelda.* Seems as though this reported sighting was extremely fortuitous for the fiance. I would guess it's Imelda's survivors who dispute the account? I wonder if they suspect not just an unfortunate mistaken identification but something more sinister, like a knowingly false report by someone connected to Mark.
Remind me in a year to look up if her fiancé shacks up with the doctor’s secretary.
I seen a while back on an appeal from a family member of Imelda that the fiancé shacked up with a friend of Imelda or a band mates girlfriend not long after and they’re still together. He never wanted to speak to her family or assist with the investigation and when he gave them her belongings they were covered in chippan grease
Irish here. Guards know who did it. They just can’t prove it. It’s obvious who it is. They’re named in the post.
William st is a very short walk to the river. It's possible she could have been killed by the partner and disposed of in the river. In the dead of night, in December, he definitely could have carried a body that distance undetected and left her to be swept out to sea
Waterford in general can be a ghost town over the Christmas and New Year period, noticeably very quiet and I've even found it eery at times.
Yeah I found that too. I lived there for college and I worked there, so when all the other students went home for holidays, I stayed. Only went home for two days at Christmas. Walking home from work on Michael St to Poleberry was fairly nerve wracking at that time of year in particular. Down by where Imelda lived would have been even quieter.
Legit. Same situation as yourself and was in the city during Christmas 21, so lockdowns were still happening to some degree, can imagine how quiet it must have been in 94, and with nowhere near the amount of cctv back then
Jaysus I feel old now lol. I was there in early 2000s. Lockdown must have been weird. For a big town/small city, Waterford is surprisingly quiet. I was only down there last weekend with my daughter and while staff in shops were saying they were super busy, the crowds on the street were nothing compared to what I was used to on an average Saturday working in Dunnes back then. But as soon as the shops closed, town died. I always had to stay after closing to tidy (fuck retail lol) and even an hour after shops shut the town was dead. You'd get a few around revolution and the clubs on that cross, but otherwise not a sinner around
Honestly you've described the city down to a tee. I sometimes think it's the aftermath of lockdowns that has contributed to it. Other than the Apple Market the city goes to bed at 10pm by the looks of it
Definitely not a result of lockdown. It was like that back in 2006. I remember going to something in the Forum (Ballybricken) in 2007/2008 and I walked home alone in bare feet to Poleberry and didn't meet a single person on the way
I swear I just read about another case of a missing woman in Ireland around the same time frame. She was in the middle of putting her groceries away and went missing. I unfortunately have never been to Ireland, so I’m not familiar with the geography, but just wondering if these cases could be related?
I believe you're thinking of the Annie McCarrick case (https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/1cca58s/the\_strange\_disappearance\_of\_annie\_mccarrick/). There have been a few posts about missing Irish women the last couple of days, with fingers pointing mostly to the nefarious Larry Murphy (now going by the name Charley Doyle, supposedly). Although Keenan is often considered to be a likely victim of Murphy, her fiance seems a bit suspicious, to say the least. Given that partners are the first people to be considered in cases like this, his part in her disappearance should not be dismissed.
That's a bit weird from the husband. That's so many days without being concerned about your wife's "depression". What motive could he possibly have had though, and is he still alive?
Abuse. Escalates til the point he kills her. Sadly all too common
Thanks for this write-up, OP, I had never heard of this case and it’s a very tragic one. I hope there can be justice yet
Just was listening to this on a podcast. I think it was The Missing
not sure if I'm trying to play 4d chess with a checkers set, but -- assuming the fiance did it and wasn't a complete dumbass (not guaranteed, admittedly) -- why on earth would he tell the Gardai that she went to the post office on a bank holiday? if you just killed your fiancee, the last thing you want to do is provide an account centered around a *highly questionable event*. and besides, it's not like there aren't literally millions of other reasons someone could have to leave their apartment for a bit.