Unsolved Portlaoise murder to feature in TV series
Tributes laid at the site where Marie Kilmartin's body was found
THE unsolved murder of a Portlaoise woman more than 30 years ago will feature in a TV crime documentary next week.
The programme will examine the tragic murder of Marie Kilmartin, whose body was found on bog land six months after she disappeared from her home in Beladd.
The harrowing story will feature in the second episode of (Murder in our Midst), a three-part true crime documentary series by Midas Productions for TG4.
Airing at 9.30pm on Wednesday 26 February, the episode will follow Marie’s daughter Áine, who had been adopted within the extended family, as she searches for answers on who murdered her birth mother.
Marie disappeared from her home on 16 December 1993, having returned from a Christmas party at a local nursing home where she volunteered. After a phone call was made to the house at about 4.30pm, Marie apparently left and was not seen until six months later, when her body was discovered by a local man out walking on a bog site near Mountmellick.
She had been strangled and a concrete slab had been placed on her chest. A murder investigation was launched but the case remains unsolved. Over the years, there were three arrests in the case but no one has ever been charged.
Áine was 13 when Marie disappeared and 14 when her body was found. She always thought Marie was her cousin but, at the age of 20, she discovered that she was her birth mother. Since then, she has made it her mission to uncover the truth.
With archive footage from the time and interviews with local people, the documentary shows that Marie’s murder left an everlasting and traumatic mark, not only on her loved ones but on the wider Portlaoise community.
Among those interviewed for the programme are Portlaoise county councillor and school teacher Tommy Mulligan, Marie’s friend Austin Stack and former Detective Chief Superintendent John O'Brien.
Mr O’Brien is still haunted by the case decades later, as he recalls visiting the scene where Marie’s body was discovered. He says that he only hopes that Marie’s loved ones will get justice and that the case can finally be put to rest.
The programme also explores how Marie’s life and murder reflect the treatment of women in Ireland in the 1970s and ‘80s, including the institutionalisation of unwed mothers and how society viewed them.
Marie’s disappearance and murder happened at time when a number of women went missing and were later deemed to have been murdered. Better known as ‘The Vanishing Triangle’ cases, the majority remain unsolved.
The TG4 series shines a light on the effect that fatal crimes have on society, local communities and on the victim’s families, as they are left without answers.
Gardaí say that Marie’s case is ‘an ongoing, active murder investigation’ by members of the Portlaoise Serious Crime Unit, under a senior investigating officer.
