Paul Williams - Almost the Perfect Murder: The Killing of Elaine O’Hara, the Extraordinary Garda Investigation and the Trial That Stunned the Nation

Almost the Perfect Murder is the tenth book by Irelands leading crime writer and one of its most respected journalists. Over two decades Paul Williamss courageous and groundbreaking investigative work has won him multiple awards, including Print Journalist of the Year, Campaigning Journalist of the Year, Scoop of the Year, Breaking Business News Story of the Year, the Humbert Summer School International Media Award and the Irish Security Industry Associations Premier Award. In 2013 he won a number of awards for the Irish Independents Anglo Tapes investigation in which secret internal Anglo Irish Bank recordings were exposed, revealing how Irelands most toxic bank contributed to the collapse of the Irish economy. Williams has researched, written and presented a number of major TV crime series. He is a registered member of the internationally respected Washington DC-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). He is married with two children and lives in Dublin.

The General

Secret Love: My Life with Father Michael Cleary (as ghostwriter)

Gangland

Evil Empire

Crime Lords

The Untouchables

Crime Wars

Badfellas

Murder Inc.

MOVIES/TV SERIES

The General (John Boorman film adapted from book of the same title)

Dirty Money The Story of the Criminal Assets Bureau (TV3)

Bad Fellas (RT)

To the memory of the innocent victims of evil people everywhere

The anguish was written on the mans face when he walked through the front doors of Stepaside Garda Station. Frank OHara was facing every parents worst nightmare: one of his children was missing and he feared the worst. He had been unable to reach his daughter Elaine for nearly two days and no one had seen or heard from her. It was out of character Elaine spoke to him on the phone at least once a day and he was deeply concerned. It was Friday morning, 24 August 2012. He had last seen her on Wednesday afternoon, when she had called in to him after being discharged from hospital. They had visited Shanganagh Cemetery and placed some fresh plants on her mothers grave. He told the officers his daughter had seemed in good spirits.

The previous morning Thursday Elaine OHara had been due to start working as a volunteer at the Tall Ships Festival in Dublin city centre. It was a significant event in his daughters life and she had been looking forward to it for months. She had attended a training day for volunteers and wouldnt have missed it for the world. At the newsagents where she worked part-time, Elaine had booked time off for the duration of the two-day festival. She had also arranged to get a lift into town from her fathers partner, Sheila Hawkins, early on Thursday morning. Elaine suffered from a chronic lack of confidence and her appointment as a team leader at the festival was a major achievement. This was an important undertaking for her. Her family and doctors saw her enthusiasm for the Tall Ships event as hugely encouraging.

Sheilas apartment was directly opposite Elaines, and late on Wednesday night she noticed that there was no sign of life inside. It seemed odd, but she told herself that Elaine had probably gone to bed early for the big day ahead. At 10.34 p.m. she sent Elaine a short text saying: See you 7.15 a.m. There was no response.

When Elaine failed to turn up for her lift, Sheila drove over to the apartment. She rang the bell but got no answer. She tried Elaines phone, got no answer to it either and left a voice message. Sheila called Frank OHara at 8.30 a.m. to tell him what had happened. Elaines sister, Ann, had phoned her twice on Wednesday evening, to say she was glad she was out of hospital, but got no reply.

A few hours later Frank called round to Elaines apartment, letting himself in with a key she had given him for emergencies. The apartment was empty and her iPhone, which was her permanent appendage, was plugged into the charger. He assumed that she had overslept and then rushed out in a panic, forgetting her phone. By 11.30 p.m. Frank still hadnt heard from his daughter, so he sent her a text: Are you alive? Sheila Hawkins noticed that there was still no sign of life in the apartment and that Elaines car was not in the underground car park. She thought Elaine must be working late at the festival in Dublin.

First thing the following morning Sheila Hawkins checked the apartment again. When there was still no sign of Elaine or her car, the niggling feeling shed had since Wednesday night turned into apprehension. She called Frank OHara for the second morning in a row. He visited the apartment again and found nothing had moved since the previous day. The phone was still charging. He now noticed that Elaines handbag had been left behind. It was obvious that she had not returned overnight.

Frank OHara phoned St Edmundsbury Hospital, the mental health facility Elaine had left two days earlier, and spoke to her doctor, Matt Murphy. He confirmed she hadnt returned. Franks worry turned to dread after speaking to the organizers at the Tall Ships Festival. They told him Elaine hadnt turned up, which had surprised them because she had been so enthusiastic about her role as a team leader. They had also phoned Elaine but got no reply. Frank became distressed and called his other grown-up children to help him search. He couldnt quell the sense of foreboding that his daughter might have taken her own life. So he went to the local Garda station to report her missing.

Elaines father and siblings had good reason to suspect the worst. Since childhood her life had been blighted by a variety of mental health issues. Born on St Patricks Day in 1976, Elaine was the first child of Frank and Eileen OHara. Frank was a banker and Eileen a teacher. The couple lived in relative comfort in middle-class Killiney in South Dublin. In 1978 their second daughter, Ann, was born, followed by Frank junior in 1982 and John, the youngest, two years later. In 1986, when Elaine was ten, the family moved to Oakdene in Killiney. She attended St Johns National School in Ballybrack, where her mother worked, and Our Lady of Good Counsel National School in Killiney when the family moved. She later went to St Joseph of Cluny Secondary School in Killiney. When Elaine was fifteen her parents discovered that she had been the victim of bullying at school, and around the same time a close friend was killed in a road accident. Together these events became the triggers for underlying psychiatric problems which had been festering since about the age of twelve. After that she slid into a downward spiral of chronic depression and anxiety. To compound matters she suffered from asthma and diabetes and began smoking heavily. Dyslexia, which affected her writing and verbal abilities, added to her sense of insecurity and low self-esteem. Life had dealt Elaine OHara a raw deal.

Elaines complex psychiatric issues manifested themselves when she started to self-harm by cutting herself. When Elaine was sixteen, Ann found her in the upstairs bathroom after she had cut her wrists. Her family were profoundly shocked by her suicide attempt, because there had been no warning that her problems had become so acute. In August 1992, Frank and Eileen OHara brought her to the high-profile psychiatrist Professor Anthony Clare. He agreed to take Elaine on as a patient and she was admitted for treatment to St Edmundsbury Hospital in Lucan, west Dublin. Professor Clare and his team were initially uncertain about Elaines diagnosis and thought she had an emerging psychotic illness. She informed Professor Clare that she had had fantasies of being restrained or imprisoned from the age of twelve but wouldnt elaborate.