Lines of Enquiry

At breakfast, on the morning Friday the 26th of October, 2012, a family in Portlaoise County Laois, find that their live-in nanny Aoife Phelan, is missing. She is not in her room, her bed is made, and her phone is going straight to voicemail. She had been out the night before and it seems she never came home. Her family haven’t heard from her either.
As a search party gets underway a young man known to Aoife quietly boards a plane at Dublin Airport bound for New York City. When a detective reaches him in New York, he says he hasn’t heard from Aoife in weeks. The detective has heard otherwise.
The lies have only just begun. And so has the search for Aoife Phelan.
In this episode of Lines of Enquiry, John revisits the tragic search for Aoife Phelan and the investigation that had to untangle a web of lies that grew with each step.

Presented John Sweetman
Created by Darren Cleary
Episode written by Anna Priestland
Produced by Sam Hobson
Executive produced by Eoin Brennan
Sound Design and Editing by Neil Kavanagh
Audio Editing Support by Ed Smith
Legal, Marketing and Social Media Support by the Team at GoLoud
Artwork and Graphics by Eric Rowntree

In this episode of Lines of Enquiry: Case Notes, John is joined Darren Cleary for a conversation with Julieanne Lynch, the mother of Kelly Lynch. On St Patrick’s Day in 2024, 23-year-old Kelly was found dead under a bridge in Monaghan. Since then, her family have continued to seek answers about what happened to her.
In the first of two parts, Julieanne helps us get to know Kelly through the memories they shared, their humour, everyday routines, and the close friendship they had as mother and daughter. She speaks about Kelly’s hopes for her future and the space her absence has left in their family’s lives.
Julieanne also recalls their final conversations, the growing worry when Kelly stopped responding, and the devastating moment the family learned she had died.

In November 2024, Hungarian detectives searching for a missing American nurse traced her through CCTV from Budapest’s nightlife district. In the footage they saw Mackenzie Michalski, leaving a club and waling the city streets with a man. The pair entered an apartment building. After that, there was no further trace.

Detectives set about locating the unidentified man - the last person seen with Mackenzie. When they did, they found an Irishman from a wealthy south Dublin family.

Mackenzie had been spending one final night in a city she knew well and loved. The next morning, she missed her flight home. Her passport and belongings were still at her Airbnb, and her friends could not reach her.

Camera by camera, investigators pieced together her last known movements. But they could find no footage of her leaving the man's apartment.
In this episode, we follow the search for Mackenzie Michalski, examining how investigators pieced together the evidence from her last night in Budapest and uncovered a crime far darker than anything they first expected.

Presented by John Sweetman
Created by Darren Cleary
Written by Sam Hobson
Script Edited by Eoin Brennan
Produced by Sam Hobson
Senior Producer Siobhan Walsh
Executive Produced by Eoin Brennan
Sound Design and Editing by Neil Kavanagh
Audio Editing Support by Ed Smith
Legal, Marketing and Social Media Support by the Team at GoLoud
Artwork and Graphics by Eric Rowntree

In April 2022, a series of violent attacks plunged Sligo into fear. Within the space of four days, two men were murdered in their homes and a third was left permanently injured after meeting a younger man through a dating app.
In this episode of Lines of Enquiry: Incident Brief, John Sweetman examines the murders of Aidan Moffitt and Michael Snee, and the subsequent race to find the attacker before he struck again.
Presented by John Sweetman
Created by Darren Cleary
Episode Written by Sam Hobson
Produced by Sam Hobson
Senior Producer Siobhan Walsh
Executive Produced by Eoin Brennan
Sound Design and Editing by Neil Kavanagh
Audio Editing Support by Ed Smith
Legal, Marketing and Social Media Support by the Team at GoLoud
Artwork and Graphics by Eric Rowntree

In this episode of Lines of Enquiry: Case Notes, John is joined by Pat Marry, a retired Detective Inspector with An Garda Síochána and author of several books, including The Making of a Detective.
Drawing on a career spanning more than three decades, Pat reflects on the persistence, attention to detail and empathy required to investigate serious crime.
He revisits the murders of Rachel O’Reilly and Mary Gough, explaining how instinct made him challenge the accounts given by their husbands, Joe O’Reilly and Colin Whelan. Pat describes what he recalls as pioneering uses of mobile phone location analysis and computer evidence in these murder investigations, and the painstaking work required to turn emerging techniques into evidence that could stand up in court.
Pat also speaks about investigating the murder of his colleague, Garda Adrian Donohoe, and the personal strain of seeking justice for someone he knew and worked alongside.