Touching memorial remains poignant reminder of much-missed Phyllis

A touching memorial on a rural road on the Wicklow/Kildare border is a poignant reminder of a much-missed Kildare woman brutally murdered nearly 40 years ago.

Buses of foreign tourists passing the site on their way to the scenic Wicklow Gap area will know little of the background to the tribute.

The Memorial reads:

In Memory of Phyllis Murphy, Aged 23 Years, Found at this spot on the 18th January, 1980. May she rest in peace.

Popular Phyllis was killed by father-of-five and former Army sergeant John Crerar on December 22, 1979 - a day she spent in Newbridge.

Christmas shopping

Kildare Town native Phyllis was a popular worker at Curragh Knitwear and was staying in accommodation in Rathangan at the time of her death.

On December 22, she spent the afternoon doing Christmas shopping in Newbridge and the last sighting was at a bus-stop outside the Keadeen Hotel shortly after 6.25pm.

A huge Garda operation followed her reported disappearance.

Several items of her clothing as well as the Christmas presents she had bought were later found at various locations in the Curragh, Brannockstown and Lockstown Upper in Co Wicklow.

But it was not until 28 days later that her body was found.

A Garda search party found Phyllis under spruce trees at Ballinagee on the Hollywood to Glendalough road near the Wicklow Gap on January 18, 1980.

The Memorial sits at the site today, adorned by floral tributes.

DNA was found on the deceased and later led to the breakthrough in the murder investigation.

Crerar, who worked as a security guard in the former Black and Decker factory in Kildare Town, was eventually finally convicted in 2002 after advances in forensic science and after a co-worker retracted an earlier alibi.

Family and friends keep Phyllis very close in their thoughts and fondly remember her every year on the anniversary of her death.