About This Episode
Elizabeth Plunkett was 23 years old when she disappeared on the last weekend of summer in 1976. The Dublin native had traveled to Brittas Bay in County Wicklow for a night away with friends. After an argument or moment of embarrassment, she walked away from the group around 10:30pm. She would never return.
Weeks later, her body was found—brutally murdered, bound to a lawnmower, and dumped in the sea. The official cause of death recorded at inquest was asphyxiation, though she had been raped and strangled.
Two men were responsible: John Shaw and Geoffrey Evans, now recognized as Ireland's first known serial killers. Both admitted to abducting Elizabeth, raping her, and strangling her before disposing of her body. Yet despite their confessions, the State dropped charges against them for her murder. No conviction. No trial. No justice.
Instead, Shaw and Evans were prosecuted and convicted for the August or September 1976 murder of Mary Duffy in Galway—another victim taken in that brutal summer. While they served time for that crime, Elizabeth's case remained officially closed, her murderers' confessions seemingly insufficient for court action.
For nearly five decades, Elizabeth's family maintained silence. Her sisters, Kathleen Nolan and Bernie Plunkett, carried the weight of an unsolved case in a way the justice system never would. But in 2023, everything changed. A parole application by John Shaw forced the family to engage with authorities once more—and revealed a shocking truth. The sisters discovered that Shaw and Evans had never actually been convicted of Elizabeth's murder. The realization became a catalyst.
In January 2025, an inquest was finally held in Gorey—the first official inquest in 49 years. The verdict: unlawful killing. A small measure of official acknowledgment, but not justice in the way the family sought it.
Frustrated by the State's reluctance to engage, Kathleen and Bernie turned to public accountability. They contacted RTÉ Documentary On One, which produced "Stolen Sister," a podcast series that premiered in 2025. Through intimate interviews and meticulous investigation, the series pieces together Elizabeth's final hours, the confessions that went unprosecuted, and the family trauma of decades of silence.
The podcast also suggests a darker pattern. Beyond Mary Duffy, other women may have been attacked by Shaw and Evans in the summer of 1976—victims whose cases remain largely unknown or unconfirmed.
Today, Kathleen and Bernie are leading a public campaign to reopen the murder investigation into their sister's death. They are demanding that the State reconsider why confessions to rape and murder were not sufficient to secure convictions. They are asking why Elizabeth's case was abandoned while Mary Duffy's was not.
The sisters' determination to break 49 years of silence represents more than a family's personal quest. It challenges the Irish justice system to confront uncomfortable questions about how serial killers were handled in the 1970s, why some victims received justice while others did not, and what it means when State authorities decline to prosecute confessed murderers.
Elizabeth Plunkett's case remains a reminder that some crimes do not simply fade away—they haunt families, communities, and the institutions that failed them.
Sources
- https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2025/0703/1521597-stolen-sister-elizabeth-plunkett-silbling-loss-death-long-term-effects-/ - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/stolen-sister/id1842314270 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pn2XzEK0-ZA - https://pod.wave.co/podcast/valley-of-shadows/bad-women-presents-stolen-sister-elizabeth-plunkett - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-qKEsnbh1M
