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Pictured are (l to r) daughter Lisa Smith, Detective Inspector Sorcha Fitzpatrick, District Superintendent Padraic Powell, and daughter Rachel Smith in Bray Garda Station today. RollingNews.ie
Antoinette Smith
Family of murdered woman say they believe their mother's death was planned and she knew her killer
Antoinette Smith’s body was discovered in a drain in Enniskerry, Wicklow, in 1988.
THE DAUGHTERS OF murdered woman Antoinette Smith today said they believe the person who killed their mother was known to her as they appealed for information on the 32nd anniversary of her disappearance.
Antoinette Smith never returned home after she went to a David Bowie concert in Slane in 1987.
Her body was found almost a year later on 3 April 1988 in a drain next to a turf-cutters’ road on Glendoo Mountain, near the Lemass monument outside Enniskerry in Wicklow.
Her two daughters are pleading for information from the public to help find whoever killed their mother and have said they believe her murder was planned.
Antoinette, who was 27 when she died, was last seen wearing a David Bowie T-shirt, dark blue denim jeans, a denim jacket and navy blue high heels.
She went to the La Mirage nightclub on Parnell Street with some friends after the concert. She left the club around 2.15am that night but never returned home.
Speaking this morning at Bray Garda Station, her daughters Lisa and Rachel said they believe there is someone out there with a “guilty conscience” who can come forward and give the information which solves the cold case.
Lisa said: “We were both very young when she died. I was seven, Rachel was four.
“You miss things, the milestones like going to school, big school, the types of things you need your mam for. You win a trophy or something and you’re very aware when you see others with parents, my mammy’s not here.
“We are going to keep fighting no matter how long it takes. Someone has to know something. There is someone out there withholding information and we need them to come forward. We need a breakthrough. Just do the right thing and come forward.
“It has been 32 years and we’re willing to continue for as long as it takes but we need something, something small in order to put the links together, to solve this.”
Rachel Smith described how the family believe that their mother’s death was planned and that the area where her body was dumped was so remote that “the person who left her there never expected her to be found”.
Anyone with any information is being urged to contact the Garda Confidential Line at 1800-666-111, Crimestoppers on 1800-250-025 or the Gardaí’s Serious Crime Review Team at 01-666-3444.
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