Hopes new lead will solve 30-year mystery of missing US tourist

A CRACK team from the US investigating the mystery disappearance of American tourist Annie McCarrick has received a “promising new” lead that could help solve the near 30-year-old case.

Michael Griffith, a New Yorkbased lawyer who was hired by Ms McCarrick’s family in the 90s to help with the missing persons investigation, was contacted following an article that appeared in Monday’s Irish Independent.

The article revealed that Mr Griffith and ex-FBI agent Kenneth Strange are planning to travel to Ireland later this year to try to find out what happened to the 26-year-old woman.

“I received an email from a person who had read the article,” said Mr Griffith.

“It was a lengthy and detailed email and it has presented us with a new lead that is very promising.

“I can’t go into the details at this stage but a member of our team in Ireland is following up and will meet the person who wrote it to establish the credibility of the lead. The information that was disclosed is new to us and is of a very sensitive nature.”

Ms McCarrick was last seen taking a bus to Enniskerry on the afternoon of Friday, March 26, 1993.

Her father John, who spent years trying to find out what happened to her, died in 2009 with no answers.

Mr Griffith and Mr Strange have joined forces with Annie’s uncle, John Covell, to finally solve the mystery.

The men have identified a prime suspect in the case and are hoping to get access to the cold case file on the initial investigation.

The US-based team is being assisted by Brian McCarthy, an Irish private investigator who was initially hired by the McCarricks when their daughter went missing almost 30 years ago.

“We are also getting help from Joe Barnes, a criminal lawyer based in Dublin,” said

US tourist Annie McCarrick was 26 when she vanished Mr Griffith. “I will travel to Ireland in August and we are hoping we can get access to the Garda files on this case... We don’t see why not.” At the time of Annie’s disappearance, gardaí investigating the case collected information to say that she visited Johnnie Fox’s Pub, in the village of Glencullen, high in the Dublin Mountains. Mr Griffith and the US-based team do not believe that information to be correct. “She didn’t go there,” he said. “Our own investigations have established that the sighting of her in the pub was a case of mistaken identity. “This new information would tally with our belief that she didn’t go to the pub.” In an interview with the Irish Independent, Ms McCarrick’s aunt Maureen appealed to anyone who has information to share it with the private investigation team or the gardaí. “Annie will never be forgotten by us,” she said. “I would ask anyone with information to put themselves in my family’s position and try to imagine what the last 27 years without her, and not knowing what has happened to her, has been like. “I would ask that they try and find it within themselves to come forward and disclose whatever they know.”