A massive search had been conducted across Kildare and Wicklow following her disappearance.
John Crerar, a convicted murderer who eluded justice for two decades, has died at the age of 76 while serving a life sentence for the 1979 killing of 23-year-old Phyllis Murphy.
Phyllis, from Kildare Town, was abducted in Newbridge outside the Keadeen while waiting for a bus shortly before Christmas.
She was a factory worker at Curragh Knitwear and had been staying in Rathangan at the time of her death.
She was raped, beaten and strangled.
Her body was discovered in January 1980 in the Wicklow Gap, 30 kilometers from where she was last seen.
A massive search had been conducted across Kildare and Wicklow following her disappearance.
Crerar’s conviction in 2002 came after a breakthrough in DNA technology.
Semen samples recovered from Ms Murphy’s body in 1980, which had previously been linked only to a blood group, were re-analysed in 1999.
The analysis generated a full DNA profile, which matched blood samples voluntarily provided by Crerar during the original investigation.
At the time of the murder, Crerar was a former soldier from Tipperary living in Kildare, having left the Army in the mid-1970s.
He was working as a security guard when he carried out the murder.
He was arrested in 1999 and charged with Ms Murphy’s murder but was granted bail until his trial.
In October 2002, he was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Despite the DNA evidence, Crerar consistently denied his involvement in the crime.
Due to the nature of his offence, Crerar’s movements were examined by investigators in connection with other unsolved cases involving women in Leinster.
He was denied parole as recently as November 2023 and was informed he would not be eligible to apply again until 2026.
Crerar reportedly fell ill at Arbour Hill Prison last Friday and was transferred to Dublin’s Mater Hospital, where he died on Saturday.
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