The Cold Case Files (13 page)

Gardaí believe they know exactly the actual orange car which was parked in the car park and which was apparently used in the abduction. Thanks in particular to the excellent observation
of one witness, detectives believe they not only know the make and model of the car, but the actual car itself. Sometimes a witness can be particularly observant, or have a sixth sense about
something. One such person was a woman who was in Castle Cove less than fifteen minutes prior to Brooke’s abduction and who noticed an orange car parked in the car park at White Strand. There
was something about the car that seemed out of place. It was just a feeling that the woman had. The woman’s husband had seen the car earlier in the morning at around 10.15 a.m. and noticed
three men in it. He was then out with his wife a short time later and saw the car again. It was parked at the White Strand car park near a block of timber which was on a trailer. The woman got a
pen and the nearest thing she could find to write on, and so on a copy of
The Kerryman
newspaper she wrote down the licence plate of the orange Toyota Corolla that seemed out of place. She
also jotted down the time, it was 11.10 a.m. The man and woman continued on about their day, but they later saw the same car driving fast near Castle Cove village. When the couple subsequently
heard about the disappearance of Brooke Pickard they immediately told Gardaí what they had seen and handed over the copy of
The Kerryman
with the licence number of the orange car
written on it.

As Garda investigations continued, it seemed a number of people had seen the same car that morning. White Strand car park is well below the level of the nearby
N
70 road
and is shielded from a significant portion of the main road by a wall, but some people walking or driving past still got a glimpse into the car park and noticed some activity. One man actually saw
Brooke’s blue van and the orange Toyota Corolla in the car park at around 11.20 a.m. but he didn’t see any people. About ten minutes later another man was passing by and glanced into
the car park and saw about five or six people down the end of the car park. Another man also saw the orange car in the area and he had a particularly good memory of it. It was a four-door model
with a towbar fixed to it, and it had a red rear number plate.

The orange car that it is believed was used by the abductors had been taken without its owner’s knowledge from north Co. Kilkenny. Sometime after Brooke was abducted the car was left in
the grounds of Limerick Regional Hospital. It was a 1980 Toyota Corolla and there were a number of stickers on the car, including one for the
Italia
90 soccer World Cup. The car was later
forensically examined and it was established that it had been recently cleaned both inside and out. Brush fibres were found at the windows of the car which looked like plastic automatic car-wash
fibres, and there was very little dust or debris inside the car. It appeared that after the car had been used in the abduction of Brooke Pickard, someone had gone to great lengths to try and remove
any trace of evidence from the vehicle.

It’s possible the Toyota Corolla was indeed suffering some genuine engine trouble on the day Brooke was abducted. When later examined the Corolla had dirt in the carburettor and was
cutting out. A number of witnesses who had seen a similar car on the Ring of Kerry on Thursday 25 April, the day prior to the abduction, described seeing an orange car parked awkwardly on the side
of the road. The witnesses all saw the car close to the village of Sneem, nine miles east of Castle Cove. They later told Gardaí that the way the car was parked made them think it had broken
down. The car these witnesses saw was very like the car used in the abduction. It had a red rear number plate, a towbar and was an orange Toyota Corolla. This opens up the possibility that the
armed gang were in the Co. Kerry area at least one day before they abducted Brooke. Perhaps they had been carrying out reconnaissance or perhaps they were meeting with one or more local people to
finalise plans for the abduction.

The fact that the car believed used in the abduction was later found to be cutting out also opens up the possibility that Brooke had indeed believed he was going to White Strand car park to help
fix a car. It is just a theory, but given the fact that Brooke was a good mechanic, perhaps the fact that the Toyota Corolla was giving trouble was a convenient inconvenience. Perhaps the gang
decided to use a truthful reason to entice Brooke down to the car park. Perhaps the plan involved making sure he brought his van as well. Perhaps Brooke bought the petrol en route to the car park
in case that was the simple problem with the car. Perhaps the person who had waved him down as he drove onto the main road was actually being genuine in saying he had car trouble. Perhaps the
abduction was a spur of the moment decision by other people who had been in the car and were waiting. However, if this is the case, why has the person who drove into the car park with Brooke never
come forward to say what happened? That man’s failure to identify himself and say what he knows has led Gardaí to strongly believe that he was part of the abduction plot, and that
coincidentally, the getaway car later broke down completely and was abandoned in Limerick.

The investigation into the disappearance of Brooke Pickard was essentially a criminal investigation from the moment Gardaí were alerted. Once Sergeant Michael Griffin took the phone call
at Caherciveen station which first raised the alarm, detectives knew they were dealing with an armed abduction and possible murder. A large team of Gardaí was assembled, led by Chief
Superintendent Donal O’Sullivan and Superintendent Thomas Lally. A major search was undertaken throughout Castle Cove and beyond for Brooke, his blue van, and the orange Toyota Corolla. A
thorough search of the coastline was conducted, and the army helicopter was used to search the nearby mountainous terrain. A full description of Brooke was issued to the local and national
media—slim but fit, short cropped grey-brown hair, grey-brown stubble, would normally wear wire-rimmed glasses for driving, a distinctive nose, square jaw bone and Yorkshire accent. Brooke
had previously worn a full beard but had recently shaved it off and wore stubble instead. The appeal also included the information that Brooke smoked rolled-up cigarettes and had a pleasant
manner.

Within days of Brooke’s disappearance, much information was coming to light. There were now suggestions that another abduction attempt had been made on the same Kerry peninsula within a
few hours of Brooke’s disappearance. Information was coming into the investigation team suggesting another man had managed to escape from armed men when he realised he was about to be
abducted. It was quite possible that there might be a link between the two. It’s a lead Gardaí are still actively following.

There was also talk that at least one person might have seen Brooke fighting back against the men who attacked him. There was a rumour that a man had seen Brooke being struck on the back of the
head with a firearm and then being bundled into his own van. Extensive interviews of all local people led to information suggesting that men from Northern Ireland had previously visited the area. A
number of people in Cos. Kerry and Cork were also nominated as perhaps having more information than they were giving. In the first few days of May 1991 a number of people were arrested in
connection with Brooke’s disappearance. The investigation into the abduction of Brooke Pickard was soon unearthing information of other suspected criminal activity in the south-west of the
country. It was becoming apparent that the investigation would be very complex and time-consuming. Assistance was sought from the Crime and Security Branch at Garda Headquarters, and two
experienced officers, Detective Superintendent Tom Connolly and Detective Garda Bernie Hanley, travelled to Kerry to assist in the case.

Gardaí spoke at length with the young girl who had been on horseback when she saw the masked man in White Strand car park. Despite her young age, her recall was very good. The orange car
was parked facing towards the beach, she remembered. The masked man who had suddenly appeared from the side of a vacant holiday home was wearing a balaclava which had holes for the eyes but no hole
for the mouth. He was wearing a blue jacket with white stripes from the shoulders to the sleeves. He seemed to be hunched up but running and was beckoning with his right hand to someone behind
him.

The girl also gave as much information as she could about the man she had earlier seen walking in Castle Cove and who was quite possibly the man that had later been in the passenger seat of
Brooke’s van as it had entered White Strand car park. The girl remembered he was wearing a white jumper and he might have had a moustache. She had seen him walking near the creamery stop in
the village. She did not recognise him.

As friends and neighbours sought to comfort Penny, her daughter and sons, Gardaí continued extensive searches along the coastline. They walked for miles both east and west of Castle Cove,
but there was no sign of Brooke and no sign yet of his van. However, the Toyota Corolla was soon located in Limerick because the licence plate had not been altered by the gang which had taken it
from Co. Kilkenny, so detectives soon built up a picture of how it had been taken to Co. Kerry and, some time after Brooke’s abduction, the Corolla was then abandoned in the grounds of
Limerick Regional Hospital. A search of the car did not reveal any clue as to what had happened to Brooke. Gardaí continued to search around Co. Kerry but it was like looking for a needle in
a haystack. But then, on Thursday 16 May—twenty days after Brooke was abducted—his van was found burnt out 27 miles from his home.

It was 3.35 p.m. when Garda Tom O’Connor received an anonymous call at Caherciveen station to say there was an abandoned van near Shronaloughane Forest, deep in the mountains north-east of
Waterville. Garda O’Connor immediately told his colleagues and one hour later Gardaí found what was left of Brooke’s van at the end of a track at the entrance to a wood in the
townland of Derreennageeha, just south of Shronaloughane. The van had been driven as far as it could along a dirt-track off the winding, hilly country road. A large tree had long ago fallen across
a section of the dirt-track and so the van had been abandoned about 300 yards in off the road, where it could go no further. It had then been set on fire. The number plate was still on the
van—
YNP
231
W
—this was Brooke Pickard’s van, last seen three weeks previously at White Strand car park.

Garda enquiries would later lead them to believe that the person who made the anonymous call alerting them to the burnt-out van had merely been passing by and saw the van. This person did not
have any involvement at all in what had happened to Brooke. There had been a good deal of media appeals about the missing Ford Transit van so the person who made the call may have rightly believed
they had found Brooke’s van, but didn’t want to have anything further to do with the case. They had done their civic duty by alerting detectives about their chance discovery.

The scene at Derreennageeha was immediately sealed off and a team from the Garda Technical Bureau arranged to travel to the forest from Dublin the next day. Detective Sergeant Edwin Hancock from
Ballistics, Detective Garda Moses Morrissey from the Fingerprint section, Detective Garda Peter O’Connor from the Photographic section and Detective Eamon Murphy from the Mapping section each
had a very precise and important job to do. The discovery of Brooke Pickard’s van was a tangible lead. The abductors might have left trace evidence at the scene, either inside or outside the
vehicle. The van had been badly damaged by fire, but a number of items were removed for further examination. One of the first things found in the van was the exploded remnants of a round of
ammunition. It was a bullet designed for use in a revolver. A technical examination by Detective Sergeant Hancock showed that the round had not been fired from a weapon but it had exploded with the
heat of the fire in the van. The detective found the casing of the round also in the rear of the vehicle.

Other items were removed from the van, each a potential clue to what had happened to Brooke, each a normal everyday item which gave an insight into Brooke’s hard-working lifestyle.
Gardaí removed one brown leather boot from the van, and a pair of orange and yellow coloured boot laces. The head of a garden fork was found, along with a hacksaw, a chainsaw, shovel,
spanners and pliers—all items Brooke used for work on the farm. Two religious medals were found in the debris along with some buttons and a number of 2p coins.

As the forensic search of the van was continuing, a major search of Derreennageeha Forest was also being conducted. Detectives were very conscious that Brooke might have been driven in the back
of his own van to the remote forest high in the mountains and then murdered. It was possible that his killers had then tried to hide his body nearby. On 17 May a large team of Gardaí walked
through the forest looking for any clue, any piece of clothing, any trace of violence, any trace of Brooke. Even with the assistance of search dogs, officers were faced with a massive search area.
The forest where Brooke’s van had been found comprised 400 acres. There were a number of other forests and mountains in the area where Brooke’s attackers could have hidden him. It was
assumed that Brooke’s van had been driven to its final destination from the Waterville direction, so a full 12-mile stretch of road was searched for a width of 50 yards on both sides. Despite
extensive searches no trace of Brooke was found.

If Brooke was killed, there is no way to definitively say how he met his death. There are some suggestions that he was struck on the head with a firearm as he was being abducted. This may have
rendered him unconscious or could have caused a fatal injury. The discovery of a bullet in Brooke’s van would certainly lend to the theory that the abductors carried weapons which were fully
loaded. However, there was no evidence of a weapon having been fired—the bullet found in Brooke’s van had exploded due to the fire that was set—but its discovery does lend weight
to the theory that Brooke may have been forced to walk at gunpoint from his own van after it came to a stop at Derreennageeha. Perhaps he was transferred to another vehicle, but it is quite
possible that he was forced to walk deep into one of the forested areas in this remote part of Co. Kerry. Although his abduction was not considered the work of a paramilitary organisation, history
has shown that such groups would force people they abducted to walk quite some distance from any road before they were executed and buried in unmarked graves in remote locations. Perhaps the
abductors of Brooke Pickard did the same thing. The more you look at the case, the more you have to wonder if the answer to Brooke’s disappearance lies within a mile or two of where his van
was found abandoned and burnt out.