Pirate Predator

The summer of 1976 brought an extraordinary three-month heatwave to Ireland. 23yr old Elizabeth Plunkett had just fallen in love and been on holiday to France. On the last weekend in August, Elizabeth headed for an overnight getaway with friends to the beach resort of Brittas Bay to mark the end of that summer. No one could have imagined what happened next… New episodes every Friday. If you...

On the last weekend of the summer of 1976, a young woman named Elizabeth Plunkett went away for a night with friends to Brittas Bay in county Wicklow. Nobody knew it then, but that was the last time she would leave home. Elizabeth was brutally murdered by two men who would go on to continue to rape and kill until they were stopped. Episode 1 available Friday 30th May 2025. Credits: Stolen Sister i...

As the search site turns into a dig site, Jón’s family await news of the search. If Jón is found, it will end all hope and a new chapter of grief begins. And as we near the end of this series, new tips continue to emerge. With everything that has been uncovered, Jón’s family ask that his case is now upgraded to a murder inquiry in the hope that they finally get some answers.  Credits: Where i...

During the first five years of Jón’s disappearance, through to February 2024, there was no indication of where Jón’s remains might lie. But behind the scenes, two anonymous notes had been handed into the authorities. The first was handed into a Garda station in 2022 - and the second to a priests house in 2023. Both indicated Jón was buried in a specific location. Could this be the first real break...

As all the first firsts begin to pass by, Jón’s birthday, Christmas, family events - everyone in Jón’s circle struggles with his loss. With no concrete information emerging to explain his disappearance, some sinister rumours begin to emerge. And then, more than a year later, some of Jón’s family members are told he was killed in Dublin…  Credits:...

As the first weeks turned into the first months since Jón’s disappearance, his family struggle to come to terms with what’s going on. There were only four possibilities to explain Jón’s disappearance - he took his own life, he was involved in an accident, someone killed him or he intentionally vanished. As we begin to examine each possibility, things start to become a little clearer…  Credits...

The vast majority of missing persons are found within 72 hours of being last seen. But if someone is not found within that timeframe, the chances of discovering what happened to them become less and less as time slips by. When Jón’s family arrived to Ireland in the days after he disappeared, they all felt something had gone very wrong for Jón. They just needed everyone else to...

When Jón left the Bonnington hotel, his partner Jana didn’t initially think too much about him walking away. But, as that day moved on, she began to get worried. And by the morning after, she knew something had gone really wrong for Jón. As Jana begins to raise the alarm, we start searching for clues in Jón’s past, in Iceland, to find out who he was - before he dis...

When Icelander Jón Jónsson arrived to Dublin in February 2019, he came for 10 days of fun - to play at the Dublin Poker Festival and to do some sightseeing with his partner, Jana. But within a day of landing in Ireland, Jón disappeared. With unique access into this story, we begin investigating Jón’s disappearance by examining the 48 hours before he was last seen...

When Jón Jónsson flew into Dublin in February 2019, he was in good spirits and looking forward to playing at the Dublin Poker Festival. However, within just 24 hours, Jón walked out of his hotel and disappeared. So what happened to him? Over the last 18 months, we’ve been working with exclusive access to Jón’s family and friends as we go in search of answers to this bizarre and baffling case. If y...

(Ep2/2) With Gadaffi’s first shipment of weapons to the IRA now landed into Ireland and dispersed around to hiding places, in this second and final part of this series, we hear how the IRA trained on these weapons. We then travel north, to Northern Ireland where on Tuesday, November 28th 1972, the IRA carried out ten rocket attacks injuring, maiming and killing. As we complete this story...

(Ep1/2) In the summer of 1972, Libya’s Colonel Gaddafi approached the Provisional IRA with an offer of weapons. A few months later, this first ever shipment of arms landed into Ireland. Fifty years after all of this took place, those centrally involved in the mission finally tell a story that has never been told before. In this first part, we follow these weapons from their point of manufacture in...

UPDATE (April 2025): Samantha Cookes pleads guilty to fraud. She appears in court for her sentencing but all does not go smoothly. There's an outcry. A shout from the public gallery halts proceedings and Samantha is taken from the dock while the Judge takes stock... See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Just as we thought this series was complete, Irish Police confirm that yesterday, Friday, 12th July 2024 in County Kerry, "Gardaí arrested a woman in her 30s as part of an ongoing investigation into alleged welfare fraud in Tralee. She is currently detained at a Garda station in the Southern Region under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984. Investigations are ongoing.” UPDATE: On Saturday...

TikTok bites back! Carrie Jade’s online supporters find out they've been played. And they're angry. They dig into Samantha's past and discover more victims. As her most famous alias is finally exposed, Samantha Cookes disappears, leaving behind thousands in unpaid rent. And then Sadie Harris shows up... As our series concludes, we also reveal new tips that have come in since we began - and w...

By 2020, Samantha Cookes has spent the last 6 years of her life moving around Ireland from coast to coast, pretending to be someone she’s not, before being rumbled and moving on. But now, she’s about to take things to a whole different level with a new identity that she wants the whole world to know about. What could possibly go wrong?... (Ep 5/6) Credits: The Real Carrie Jade is written, reported...

Knowing she’s been rumbled in Dublin, 'Lucy' (aka Samantha Cookes) disappears before showing up on the opposite side of the country, at a small village on the West Coast of Ireland. She begins work as an au pair and moves into the home and lives of another unsuspecting family, caring for their children. It’s only when she leaves that the family begin to find out the truth about who they've really...

Samantha Cookes is now living as Lucy Fitzwilliams. She’s moved to Dublin and begins to settle into a new community in the affluent south side, quickly becoming a friendly face. Lucy begins working with children. But then things start to unravel when two local women begin to question who they’ve left into their lives. And they’re not going to give up until they find out…  Credits: The Real Ca...

Having found out that Carrie Jade Williams never existed, we go in search of the real person behind it all, Samantha Cookes. And we go right back to where this story all began, in the West of England. Following Samantha’s life story takes us all over the UK and across the Irish sea as we begin to get inside a much bigger story than we thought possible…  Credits: The Real Carrie Jade is writte...

When we first went to meet Carrie Jade Williams in 2021, we were blown away by her strength, her vision, her determination and her untold story. She was a young woman on a pioneering journey, not only to help herself, but to help others. We wanted to help her tell her story, from the inside out. But then we slowly began to realise that all was not as it seems and we were becoming a pawn in her gam...

Long before anyone ever heard of this story, 3yrs ago, in 2021, a 32-year-old English woman approached us with a heartbreaking story. She was dying from a terminal illness. But she thought she might have a lifeline through lifesaving brain surgery, and she'd like us to record her final hope. What followed was an unraveling of the most unusual of stories, of a life where nothing is as it seems. Wit...

Finale. Almost 60 years after the death of June Fisk, we're at the end of our journey in our efforts to find some justice for June and her family. And while we do everything in our power to find the last known location of June's alleged murderer, Joseph Maloney, this story takes several final twists: to places none of us thought possible (Ep9/9) Credits: Runaway Joe is written, reported and produc...

When Joe Maloney was released by the Irish authorities, it was always going to be unlikely that he'd simply hang around, waiting for justice to be served. Within days of his release, he slipped away. But where to? Almost 40 years later, we've not only traced his footsteps, but we're following them - right across Europe... (Ep8/9) Credits: Runaway Joe is written, reported and produced by Pavel Bart...

With Joe Maloney arrested and firmly behind bars for the first time in almost 20 years, everyone breathes a sigh of relief. June is finally going to get justice - and Joe will finally be held accountable. It took so long to get to this point, but the wheels are in motion to return Joe to America. Surely nothing can change that now. (Ep 7/9)   Credits: Runaway Joe is written, reported and prod...

As information is sent into us by listeners, we begin to piece together new, unknown parts of Joe Maloney's story. We also focus in on the transatlantic efforts being made to arrest him and to bring him to justice - all of which leads to blowing the cover on the alias identity of Michael O'Shea. (Ep 6/9)   Credits: Runaway Joe is written, reported and produced by Pavel Barter and Tim Desmond....