moving the
investigation forward.
The PSNI have liaised with Gardaí to see if the DNA found at Inga’s crime scene matches anyone on files in the Republic. One major
hindrance in this work is the continued lack of a DNA database in the Republic, despite repeated promises by successive Governments. While the crime scene was in rural
north-east Antrim, it is still possible that people south of the border have information about the case. Perhaps they were on the ferry that night, or know people who were.
The murder of Inga-Maria Hauser is the only murder of its kind to have occurred in Northern Ireland. Many visitors were killed in violence linked to the Troubles, but no other tourist was
sexually assaulted, murdered and their body hidden by an opportunistic random attacker, similar to what happened to Inga-Maria. However, in the Republic of Ireland there are a number of tragic
cases of women who came to the Republic of Ireland to either visit or live and who fell victim to murderers. One of those women was also from Munich. Twenty-three-year-old Bettina Poeschel was on a
holiday in September 2001 when she decided to visit the historic Newgrange site in Co. Meath. She got a train from Dublin to Drogheda and then began to walk towards Donore, three miles from
Newgrange. Bettina failed to return that night and her body was found 23 days later during a Garda search. Her murderer was a convicted killer from Drogheda named Michael Murphy. He had previously
served a sentence for the manslaughter of another woman. He is now serving a life sentence for Bettina’s murder. Another murder which was committed by a known violent offender occurred in
October 2007, when Swiss student Manuela Riedo was murdered in Galway by local man Gerald Barry. Manuela’s murderer is now serving a life sentence for strangling his victim to death; he is
also serving a life sentence for raping a French student in Galway in the same year he committed murder.
The murders of Bettina Poeschel and Manuela Riedo were committed by men with a history of extreme violence who lived local to the areas where they committed opportunistic attacks on visitors to
Ireland. A major difference between these solved cases and Inga-Maria Hauser’s unsolved case, is that the ‘crime scene donor’ who left his DNA at
Ballypatrick Forest has not surfaced in any other criminal investigation in Northern Ireland or anywhere else where DNA databases have been checked.
In the 1990s six women disappeared in the Leinster area, and they have never been found. It is feared that these women may have been killed and their bodies hidden. There has been no clear
evidence to show a serial killer is responsible for any of these cases. Indeed in three of the disappearances—Fiona Pender in Co. Offaly in 1996, Ciara Breen in Co. Louth in 1997 and Fiona
Sinnott in Co. Wexford in 1998—it’s thought the victims may have known their killers. But in the other three cases—the disappearance of American woman Annie McCarrick in 1993, Jo
Jo Dullard in Co. Kildare in 1995, and an 18-year-old woman in Co. Kildare in 1998—it’s believed random abductors may be responsible. And there are also three unsolved murders of women
whose bodies were then hidden, which may have involved random attackers. Marie Kilmartin vanished from Port Laoise in December 1993; her body was found hidden in bog water on the Laois-Offaly
border in June 1994. Patricia Doherty disappeared in Tallaght in December 1991; her body was found buried in the Dublin Mountains the following June. And the oldest such unsolved case occurred when
Antoinette Smith disappeared in Dublin in 1987; her body was found buried in the Dublin Mountains on 3 April 1988—co-incidentally Antoinette’s body was found while Inga-Maria Hauser was
travelling through Britain en route to Northern Ireland. There is nothing to indicate that Inga-Maria’s killer was responsible for any of the unsolved disappearances and murders which
investigation forward.
The PSNI have liaised with Gardaí to see if the DNA found at Inga’s crime scene matches anyone on files in the Republic. One major
hindrance in this work is the continued lack of a DNA database in the Republic, despite repeated promises by successive Governments. While the crime scene was in rural
north-east Antrim, it is still possible that people south of the border have information about the case. Perhaps they were on the ferry that night, or know people who were.
The murder of Inga-Maria Hauser is the only murder of its kind to have occurred in Northern Ireland. Many visitors were killed in violence linked to the Troubles, but no other tourist was
sexually assaulted, murdered and their body hidden by an opportunistic random attacker, similar to what happened to Inga-Maria. However, in the Republic of Ireland there are a number of tragic
cases of women who came to the Republic of Ireland to either visit or live and who fell victim to murderers. One of those women was also from Munich. Twenty-three-year-old Bettina Poeschel was on a
holiday in September 2001 when she decided to visit the historic Newgrange site in Co. Meath. She got a train from Dublin to Drogheda and then began to walk towards Donore, three miles from
Newgrange. Bettina failed to return that night and her body was found 23 days later during a Garda search. Her murderer was a convicted killer from Drogheda named Michael Murphy. He had previously
served a sentence for the manslaughter of another woman. He is now serving a life sentence for Bettina’s murder. Another murder which was committed by a known violent offender occurred in
October 2007, when Swiss student Manuela Riedo was murdered in Galway by local man Gerald Barry. Manuela’s murderer is now serving a life sentence for strangling his victim to death; he is
also serving a life sentence for raping a French student in Galway in the same year he committed murder.
The murders of Bettina Poeschel and Manuela Riedo were committed by men with a history of extreme violence who lived local to the areas where they committed opportunistic attacks on visitors to
Ireland. A major difference between these solved cases and Inga-Maria Hauser’s unsolved case, is that the ‘crime scene donor’ who left his DNA at
Ballypatrick Forest has not surfaced in any other criminal investigation in Northern Ireland or anywhere else where DNA databases have been checked.
In the 1990s six women disappeared in the Leinster area, and they have never been found. It is feared that these women may have been killed and their bodies hidden. There has been no clear
evidence to show a serial killer is responsible for any of these cases. Indeed in three of the disappearances—Fiona Pender in Co. Offaly in 1996, Ciara Breen in Co. Louth in 1997 and Fiona
Sinnott in Co. Wexford in 1998—it’s thought the victims may have known their killers. But in the other three cases—the disappearance of American woman Annie McCarrick in 1993, Jo
Jo Dullard in Co. Kildare in 1995, and an 18-year-old woman in Co. Kildare in 1998—it’s believed random abductors may be responsible. And there are also three unsolved murders of women
whose bodies were then hidden, which may have involved random attackers. Marie Kilmartin vanished from Port Laoise in December 1993; her body was found hidden in bog water on the Laois-Offaly
border in June 1994. Patricia Doherty disappeared in Tallaght in December 1991; her body was found buried in the Dublin Mountains the following June. And the oldest such unsolved case occurred when
Antoinette Smith disappeared in Dublin in 1987; her body was found buried in the Dublin Mountains on 3 April 1988—co-incidentally Antoinette’s body was found while Inga-Maria Hauser was
travelling through Britain en route to Northern Ireland. There is nothing to indicate that Inga-Maria’s killer was responsible for any of the unsolved disappearances and murders which
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