Stolen Sister: 02 - Missing

·27 min·1 clip

John Shaw says Elizabeth screamed in the car and tissues were stuffed into her mouth.

1. Documentary on One's 'Stolen Sister: 02 - Missing' follows Elizabeth Plunkett's disappearance from Brutus Bay, County Wicklow, after she left McDaniel's Pub on 28 August 1976. 2. Ros Purcell narrates the episode, while Bernie and Kathleen Plunkett, Elizabeth's sisters, explain why returning to Brutus Bay after almost 50 years feels emotional and surreal. 3. The episode asks what happened after Elizabeth left the pub, and whether the clues from witness statements, family memories, and Gardaí can explain where she went. 4. Nicky Crennan of Wicklow Garda Station recalls that Brutus Bay was busy that Saturday night, with McDaniel's Pub and the nearby Rockfield Hotel drawing crowds. 5. Mary Ann Green's statement places a slim, medium-height girl near the pub around 11pm, wearing white slacks and a top marked 'Santa Pei.' 6. Damien's description of the same top, plus white jeans, navy sandals, a silver watch, and small pearl earrings, links the sighting to Elizabeth Plunkett. 7. Joe McCoy's account shows that Elizabeth's friends noticed she had vanished within minutes, searched the pub, and checked the ladies' toilets. 8. Nicky Crennan says the men later identified as John Shaw and Geoffrey Evans were travelling the Wicklow roads that night, looking for a lift. 9. David James MacDonald describes seeing a car slow near a girl on the roadside, then turning around and coming back to the same spot. 10. Geoffrey Evans later says Elizabeth got into the front seat after asking whether they were going to Dublin. 11. The episode includes the account that Elizabeth screamed in the car and that tissues were stuffed into her mouth. 12. Shaw's statement describes the car turning off near McDaniel's Pub, stopping at an opening in the woods, and the three of them climbing over a wire fence. 13. While Elizabeth's friends searched Wicklow and her family slept in Ringsend, nobody knew where she was during the early hours of Sunday, 29 August 1976. 14. Kathleen Plunkett remembers a girl knocking on the door on Sunday morning, asking for Elizabeth before disappearing up the street. 15. The Plunketts initially heard that Elizabeth was merely missing, but their mother immediately insisted something was wrong and said, 'my Elizabeth's dead, otherwise she'd be here.' 16. By Monday, 30 August 1976, the family was searching dunes and grass near Brutus Bay while Nicky Crennan received reports of two men at a caravan park and an old dump. 17. Crennan later sees John Shaw and Geoffrey Evans drying clothes in the rain, and the episode notes that they were burning Elizabeth's clothes in a quarry. 18. A Garda appeal in the Evening Herald on Wednesday, 1 September 1976 describes Elizabeth as 5 feet 5 inches tall, with brown eyes and shoulder-length black hair. 19. The tone is detailed and procedural, using actor-read statements, family recollections, and police recollections to reconstruct the timeline. 20. Viewers who follow true-crime investigations and missing-person timelines will get the most from this episode, while listeners wanting a light or self-contained story may skip it.

As heard by us

A missing-person case told through place, memory, and careful reporting.

Elizabeth Plunkett's disappearance is tied to one summer night in Brutus Bay, and the episode is at its best when it stays with ordinary places: McDaniel's Pub, the road, the woods, and the family kitchen.

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Why you'd press play

You want a missing-person story anchored to McDaniel's Pub, Brutus Bay, and a family still carrying it after almost 50 years.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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