Why?

Why?Do you know, it's something, well, it's something I've asked myself over the years, what the hesitation was in doing it.

We were quite satisfied.

It was, it was six case initially, cases initially taken on by Operation Trace, and all the circumstances of all six of those cases would suggest that none of those missing females left of their own volition.

So we were satisfied they had met their deaths through foul play, and that there were murderers.

Now, whilst at the outset we were looking to see if there was a commonality, if there was a sort of a serial killer out there operating, we were quite satisfied then three of the instances, three of the missing girls knew, um, the identity of the person responsible for their death, and Fiona was one of those.

Can time work in favor of investigators where relationships end, and loyalties change, and people who were frightened maybe at twenty-five may not be frightened at fifty-five?

Uh, absolutely.

I spoke to Alan just before the lunchtime rush and he started by bringing me back to those early years.

In September of 1972, I was transferred from Templemoor Training Centre as a Recruit Yarder to the Braidwell Yarder Station here in Dublin City Centre.

The first few weeks on the beat, I met up with Brother Kevin.

Kevin at that stage had started a centre in the yard of the monastery here in Short Street.

So I think you didn't have a chance at all to come up here and walk.

So basically that's how I started.

I was 72 and for a number of years then I volunteered.

And what's the biggest change then that you've seen over the years? I

So what does the autopsy say happened, by the way?

Yeah.

As, as you can see, it's a, it's a very, very short... "The body is that of a thin young female approximately, approximating the stated age.

There's no major significant illness found in the female which may have contributed to her death."

Today, the circumstances around Helena's death would have been treated very, very differently according to Alan Bailey.

Well, the first thing I would have done, the, the scene would have been a crime scene.

The death would have been suspicious death.

Now, and a suspicious death can be any reason, not just necessarily criminal.