A childhood friend of missing Annie McCarrick has said the American woman was “happy” being in Ireland before she disappeared.
Linda Ringhouse also told how her beloved pal, who was last seen 29 years ago, is “never forgotten among those of us that are lucky to call her a friend”.
Taking to social media on the anniversary of her disappearance on March 26, 1993, Linda said she had visited Annie a month beforehand.
She wrote: “I was able to see how happy she was to be there and starting a new life chapter. She took off to Ireland to live her ultimate dream.”
Annie, 27, went missing after taking a bus to Enniskerry, Co Wicklow, to go walking in the mountains.
Larry Murphy – who was convicted of abduction, rape and attempted murder in 2000 – is suspected of being connected to Annie’s disappearance.
Her disappearance was highly publicised and she was the first of eight women to vanish in the Leinster area in the 1990s in a series of attacks that were thought to be connected.
Annie, who would have turned 55 on March 21, was last seen taking a bus to Enniskerry and disappeared close to where Murphy lived at the time.
New Yorker Linda said it’s hard to describe losing someone this way.
She wrote: “It’s a different type of loss and grief. It brings a type of anger and rage that does subside but can come right back at any moment.”
Linda said Annie was her oldest best friend.
She wrote: “She was a force of freedom and adventure. She is never forgotten among those of us that were lucky to call her a friend.
“She is still with us and in our hearts at the dinner parties and gatherings, in difficult times and big life events and not just in the month of March but all year long over the last 29 years.”
Gardai say the investigation into Annie’s disappearance remains “open and active”.
In a statement, gardai said: “An Garda Siochana continues to actively investigate any new information which comes to our attention and continues to consider an alleged sighting of Annie McCarrick at Johnnie Fox’s pub as an open line of enquiry.”
Last week, a US private investigator working for the McCarrick family called for it to be upgraded to a murder investigation.
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