‘Pure anger’ led to murder that was well planned
GARDAÍ believe the ‘how’ of the murder was planned well in advance. The ‘when’ came when the opportunity arose. After that, it was just ‘pure anger’.
In the theory put forward by those involved in the investigation, Pat Quirke went to the Horse & Jockey the night of Thursday, June 2, 2011, as the evidence showed. If, as the gardaí believe, he was secretly recording Mary in her home, he would have known Bobby was staying over that night. In the absence of the covert surveillance, he would have gone over to Fawnagowan to check for the Mr Moonlight van. He returned early the following morning and parked his jeep close to the road, but out of sight, and walked up to the farm. While some investigators believe he called Bobby over to the tank under the guise of helping him with something and struck him at the tank, others believe he may have lured him into the milking parlour and struck him from behind in there. In both scenarios it is believed that Pat placed Bobby’s body in the tank there and then. Afterwards, he jumped into the Mr Moonlight van and drove it to the woods. After parking the van, he made his way through the forested landscape of Bansha Wood, down through Cordangan, and across several other hidden fields, before exiting close to where he had parked his car. He later returned to Fawnagowan, where Mary observed him looking ‘hot, sweaty and bothered’.
During the missing persons investigation, a local woman, Síobhán Kinnane, had come forward to say that she had seen a man fitting Bobby’s description as she went into town that morning. Although it was followed up as a line of inquiry, there were a few issues with what she told gardaí, namely that the person she saw was wearing different clothing to that worn by Bobby, that she couldn’t remember whether it was the Thursday or Friday and that she was very unsure of the exact time. Gardaí found no one else who could confirm the sighting.
It was a sighting that would later be dismissed as a case of mistaken identity, with many speculating that it could have in fact been Pat Quirke that Mrs Kinnane saw that day. The two men were of similar build, and if Pat had dumped the van in the woods, one of the most likely routes he would have taken on foot would have cut through the area where the sighting occurred.
‘No one else could confirm sighting’