Death at the Curley Hole

It should have marked a turning-point in a life that had dealt the vivacious brunette more than a few cruel knocks – a difficult childhood, fosterage at the age of 10, an unplanned pregnancy at 19.

Irrepressible and much loved by those who knew her, Breda had bounced back time after time. Now, with a home of her own and a baby daughter she adored, she must have felt that good fortune was finally beginning to smile on her.

There would have been much to celebrate in Benson’s. But now there will be no celebration.

Instead, Breda’s family spent this weekend mourning her passing, toasting her short life, committing her young body to the ground. As parish priest Fr David Bradley put it at the tragic funeral in Drogheda’s Reilig Mhuire cemetery, the clock had stopped much too early in the springtime of Breda’s life, the life that stretched before her brought to an abrupt end.

It was Fr Bradley, too, who best articulated the questions that troubled the minds of the 100-plus mourners: ‘Why did this have to happen? Why should a family have to suffer as yourselves. Why should a one year old have to wait without her mother?’ he asked.

These are questions that have also troubled the nation and baffled gardaÌ ever since the young mother was found unconscious in the centre of the Slane Road more than two weeks ago. How did she come to be lying there, with injuries so severe her family could not even recognise her?

Was she the victim of a terrible accident, perhaps stumbling into the path of a late-night motorist who was too scared to report the collision? Had she fallen from a friend’s car? Or was she the victim of something far more sinister – an assault or even a kidnap that ended with her throwing herself – or being thrown – from a speeding vehicle?

At first, gardai entertained hope that Breda would pull through her coma and solve the mystery herself. But her death robbed her family of a much-loved daughter – and the waiting officers of their best chance to get to the truth.

Officers admit that forensics are yielding little evidence to point them towards the person, or people, in the community around her who know the full truth about the Breda’s death.

The fear among her family and friends is that, like so many other Irish women in recent years, she will end up as just another file marked ‘still under
investigation’ but gathering dust on an overworked detective unit’s shelf.

Born in 1985, Breda was the last of Dermot and Helen Ryan’s nine children. She spent her early years alongside siblings – sisters Julie, Mary and Shirley and brothers Timmy, Joey, Louis, William and Simon – in the picture-postcard seaside resort of Laytown, Co. Meath.

The depression of the ’80s bit hard in the northeast and the Ryans did not escape unscathed.

Marital problems followed financial difficulties and, at the age of 10, Breda was fostered to another family in the nearby town of Ardee. There, she received her secondary education at Ardee Community School before returning to live with her own family in a new three-bedroom house on Drogheda’s Cedarfield Estate.

Like many estates, it could be tough at times. Cedarfield had its share of drugs and joyriding.

But to those who knew her, Breda was the always-cheerful optimist, the ‘bubbly’ girl who loved to dance at Earth, Storm
or Fusion, Drogheda’s lively nightclubs.

Then, almost two years ago, Breda’s life took another unexpected turn. The 19-year- old became pregnant. In June 2005, she gave birth to a baby daughter, whom she named Reanna.

She moved into a house of her own on the Campbell’s Park estate in Ardee and devoted herself to her new child.

Breda’s former boyfriend, doorman Brian Healy who works at her favourite pub, Benson’s, said: ‘She was just a lovely girl. It’s so unfair what’s after happening to her and her family.’

But Mr Healy refused point-blank to discuss anything to do with her personal life or her background – or even what she did for a living.

Nor would the regulars at Benson’s venture beyond the fact that Breda sometimes brought Reanna in, but stuck to lemonade on those occasions. ‘I think she just liked company,’ said one.

Her family spoke briefly last week in an attempt to elicit information from the public. But since the funeral, they have lapsed into silence.

Her mother, Helen, had said she was sure her daughter’s death was no accident; sister Julie was emphatic it was murder.

‘Her killer is still walking the streets and hasn’t got a care in the world. Breda didn’t deserve this,’ Julie said.

Now, however, they have retreated into their home.

‘There’s too many lies being told.

I won’t speak anymore,’ said Helen Ryan.

Silent, too, are the gardaÌ, who, despite a mammoth inquiry, now admit to being utterly baffled.

‘The truth is we just don’t know,’ said a Garda source close to the investigation, led by Supt Gerry Smith and Insp. Tom Fox.

Officers have reconstructed as best they can Breda’s last moments, beginning in the early evening of Thursday, July 27.

That night began like any other for the popular young mother as she pulled on a pink string top, blue baggy jeans and white runners at her home before heading out for the night.

Not all of her movements that night are known but Breda certainly attended a house party in Marley’s Lane.

Most of the revellers present that night have been interviewed by gardaÌ. Some noticed nothing out of the ordinary; some did not recall much of the night – after all, it was a party.

Nevertheless, some remember that Breda was texting someone constantly – and, at one point, seemed to become angry about the text exchanges.

One theory is that she then left to meet or confront whoever she was texting. GardaÌ have obtained Breda’s mobile phone and are trawling through her last calls and texts to see if this will lead them to whoever can unlock the mystery. So far, though, there has been no breakthrough and no swoop.

At 4.46 on the morning of Friday, July 28, Breda was spotted walking alone outside the LMFM studios at the junction of Marley’s Lane, where the party had been, and Rathmullan Road.

Had she kept walking along Marley’s Lane, she would have been home in 20 minutes.

Instead, at 5.50am, Breda’s limp and horribly injured unconscious form was discovered by a passer-by two-and-a-half miles away at a rural beauty spot known locally as Curley Hole.

The back road between Marley’s Lane and Curley Hole, which cuts through the site of the Battle of the Boyne, is frequented by fishermen throughout the night. A number of anglers have been interviewed by gardaÌ but none saw her that morning.

The location, just before a small lay-by, is known as a lovers’ trysting place.

‘People in cars go there. It is a bit of a courting spot. It is a kind of a boy-racer place, too,’ said one local.

Across the road from the lay-by, the Coillte-run Townley Hall forest and its small car park are frequently transformed at night from a walker’s paradise and family picnic area to a local lover’s lane.

There is a dangerous bend on the Slane Road beside the River Boyne. But the scene bore no evidence of any traffic accident – no skid marks, no broken glass, no trampled grass. Just Breda’s battered body left to die.

Given the distance, it is possible that Breda was driven there by a friend or acquaintance.

Whether such a car journey would have been willingly undertaken is impossible to know. It is possible Breda was abducted against her will.

Either way, Breda seems to have been flung from a moving car as it rounded the sharp bend just before the Curley Hole.
Her mobile phone was recovered some distance from her body – indicative of the speed and suggesting she might have been holding it at the time.

State Pathologist Marie Cassidy has not yet written up her final report – but she has found no evidence of a physical attack, sexual or otherwise.

All of Breda’s injuries have been described as consistent with a severe fall from a moving vehicle – ruling out any suggestion that she had been violently assaulted before being dumped.

Gardai placed checkpoints at the scene at the same time and day of the week that Breda’s body was found, in an effort to elicit further details from potential witnesses.

But the checks yielded nothing.

‘There’s very, very little information coming in. Nothing really concrete. Some people are calling just to get themselves ruled out,’ said a source.

Another unknown aspect is whether drugs could have been involved. Results from toxicology tests are expected next week.

‘We are not ruling drugs in or out until we get the toxicology results but they do not form part of our investigation at present,’ said a local Garda source.

Rushed first to the emergency room of Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital-in Drogheda, Breda was transferred to the head-injuries unit in Dublin’s Beaumont Hospital.

But despite the efforts of neurosurgeon Steven Young, she could not be saved. For more than a week, as her family prayed by her bedside, surgeons waited and hoped for improvement. None came.

In the early hours of last Sunday morning her life support system was switched off. The family decided not to allow her organs to be donated, preferring to bury their child intact.

Breda’s body was released to her family on Friday morning. They held a wake at their Cedarfield home on Friday night and laid their daughter to rest after Requiem Mass yesterday in Drogheda’s Holy Family Church.

To the haunting sound of Brian Kennedy’s You Raise Me Up, Breda’s five brothers – Timmy, Joey, Louis, William and Simon – and distraught father Dermot placed her coffin before the altar.

Although baby Reanna was not to be seen at the funeral, a simple floral tribute on her behalf, bearing the word ‘MUM’ in yellow and red, was given pride of place in the window of the hearse.

In a ceremony poignantly interspersed with some of life-loving Breda’s favourite music, her sisters Julie, Mary and Shirley struggled to hold back tears.

Up to 100 mourners fought with their emotions as a chilling vocal versions of Some Say Love and Amazing Grace echoed around the wooden rafters of the church.

James Blunt’s melancholy hit You’re Beautiful played as, Breda’s brothers and father carried her from the church where, just a year before, she had christened Reanna.

Many suspect that the story of her death has gone with her to the grave – that her family’s quest for justice will never be resolved.

Gardai, however, hope that someone in this community who knows will eventually crack, crushed by the weight of such a horrific secret.

And they have one last desperate ace up their sleeve. Detectives have recovered tiny fibres from Breda’s clothing and are hoping they can be paired with a car in the area. It may take one random search, one arrest for drink-driving, to match the fibres to a car, a car to a person, and a person to the truth.

Then and only then, after a life so brutally and unfairly interrupted, can Breda Ryan truly be allowed to rest in peace.

THIS STORY WAS FIRST PUBLISHED IN IRELAND ON SUNDAY (NOW THE IRISH MAIL ON SUNDAY) ON 13/08/2006. Author, Michael O’Farrell, Investigative Correspondent.