How a US TV station recreated the murder that shocked a nation
US crime network reconstructs harrowing details of Dwyer case
Filmed himself knifing partners
GRAPHIC details of the murder of tragic Elaine O’Hara at the hands of Graham Dwyer have been reconstructed for a US television crime network.
The harrowing case, which shocked the country during Dwyer’s murder trial in 2015, are outlined in a hard-hitting episode of Married with Secrets on the Investigation Discovery (ID) channel on American TV.
The network bases its docudramas on true events with the aim of unravelling ‘the truth behind real-life mysteries’.
Viewer discretion is advised at the outset of the 40-minute episode, entitled ‘Yes, Master’, which chronicles the toxic ‘master-slave’ relationship between the married architect and his vulnerable victim prior to the murder.
Central characters including Dwyer, 42, and his wife; Ms O’Hara, 36; a previous partner of the killer and key investigating gardaí are played by a cast of mainly American actors.
The show also features interviews with friends of Ms O’Hara and commentary from a number of Irish court reporters who covered the harrowing 43-day trial in 2015.
Beginning with the discovery of Ms O’Hara’s skeletal remains on Kilakee Mountain in Rathfarnham, Dublin, in 2013, ‘Yes, Master’ outlines the series of incredible coincidences, diligent police work and ‘disgusting’ phone texts that would eventually lead to the arrest of the depraved architect.
Dramatic re-enactments of the middle-class killer’s sadomasochistic behaviour along with the barrage of texts he sent his vulnerable victim, also feature in the episode which first aired on the US network six months ago.
Short clips and various versions of the entire episode have also been uploaded to YouTube.
Viewers learn that it had been presumed Ms O’Hara, who had a history of depression and self harm, had taken her own life after she went missing on August 22, 2012.
Thirteen months later – coincidentally on Dwyer’s birthday, September 13, 2013 – Ms O’Hara’s remains were found by a woman out walking her dog in remote woodland in the Dublin moutains. The Co Cork-born killer, who denied the murder, was unanimously found guilty by a jury on March 27, 2015.
He is currently serving a life sentence for the killing.
The married architect was convicted in 2015 of the murder of childcare worker Elaine O’Hara in August 2012, in one of the biggest trials ever to take place in the State. He was sent to prison two years after the skeletal remains of Ms O’Hara had been found, following a catalogue of unusual, often bizarre circumstances and tenacious work by gardaí.
The harrowing nine-week trial heard details of sado-masochistic text messages between the pair in which he spoke about his desire to stab people and in which she referred to him as ‘master’.
In one message, he told her; ‘My urge to rape, stab or kill is huge. You have to help me control or satisfy it.’ The trial was also shown evidence the Foxrock resident had filmed himself knifing sexual partners.
Dwyer denied murdering Ms O’Hara and claimed she was suicidal when she went missing, hours after being discharged from hospital for psychiatric treatment.
But mobile phone records detailing the communication between the pair, and placing both at the scene where she was last seen, played a vital role in the trial.
The jury convicted Dwyer by a unanimous verdict of Ms O’Hara’s murder.
Judge Tony Hunt told the court he ‘110% agreed’ with the jury’s decision based on the evidence which on occasions was so gruesome the public were told to leave the courtroom. According to the show’s synopsis: ‘Married with Secrets takes a look at what happens when happily ever after goes horribly wrong, when husbands and wives embark on secret lives that take them down dark paths, leading to devastating results’ with the show’s stated aim being to unravel ‘the truth behind real-life mysteries’. news@dailymail.ie