The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
FOURTEEN years after his daughter Emer’s life was taken, Johnny O’Loughlin believes the man wanted in connection with her death is at large in Morocco.
However, he feels little is being done to investigate the possibility that John Griffin is living in the North African state.
This week, Mr O’Loughlin, who is from Ennistymon but now lives in Inagh, spoke about how raw the emotion over the loss of his much-loved daughter still is.
Emer was murdered in 2005 and her remains were found in the burned-out mobile home of John Griffin.
Mr Griffin was admitted to a psychiatric facility in Ballinasloe following an incident a few days after Emer’s death. He would subsequently check himself out of the facility, apparently attempt to fake his own death on the Aran Islands and has been missing since.
Mr O’Loughlin said he has received credible information from an Irishman, who came across Mr Griffin, while in Morocco.
While he says the person in question also spoke to the gardaí about it, he feels it has not been fully explored. “They gave him [the man who encountered Griffin] pictures to put up outside in Morocco. He wouldn’t do it, that’d be driving him deeper away.”
On Tuesday, The Clare Champion approached the Garda Press Office about the investigation into Emer’s death but no response had been received at the time of going to press.
Mr O’Loughlin said he is “nearly certain” that the information about Griffin is correct. He also claims that far too much focus was put on the wrong man immediately after Emer’s death, with her partner Shane being wrongly suspected. “Every time I saw Shane, he was in the back of a squad car. They never thought of Griffin.”
Owen Ryan
Owen Ryan
Owen Ryan has been a journalist with the Clare Champion since 2007, having previously worked for a number of other regional titles in Limerick, Galway and Cork.
