Gareth O'Callaghan: Unanswered questions haunt Philip Cairns case decades later
Gardaí’s decision not to upgrade Philip Cairns’ disappearance to a murder case raises troubling questions 40 years on
On the afternoon of October 23, 1986, Philip Cairns disappeared as he walked from his home to his school, Coláiste Éanna, Ballyoran. Despite a lengthy Garda investigation into trying to establish his whereabouts, he has never been located.
Time is the investigator’s worst enemy, as I was reminded recently while listening to an interview with former FBI agent Kenneth Strange, who has played a major role in the inquiry into Annie McCarrick’s disappearance.
She vanished without trace from her Dublin apartment in March 1993. Her investigation was reclassified as a murder inquiry two years ago.
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