A Deadly Deception: The Case Of Rachel O'Reilly

thank you Noel North County Dublin in Ireland a quiet and rural area with a low crime rate and a small community of just 400 people it's beautiful and Serene with stunning views and a wonderful sense of community [Music] Monday the 4th of October 2004. at around 5 30 a.m Joe O'Reilly left the family home Lambe view to go to work at Viacom Outdoor advertising on the Bluebell industrial estate where he worked as an account manager he left his wife of 13 years Rachel at home with their sons who were two and four years old later that morning Joe sent Rachel a message saying you and the boys sleep okay wish Jackie a happy birthday for me please kiss kiss he got no reply he then left her voicemails between 11 52 am and 1 45 p.m at 1 15 PM Joe had received a call from their son's daycare saying that Rachel had failed to pick him up at 12 30 like she always did he called Rachel's phone and left her a message asking if someone else had been due to pick their son up he called again at 1 24 saying he was worried about her and she needed to call him back but there was still no response from Rachel Joe set off to get his sons and called his mother-in-law Rose calliley he told her he hadn't heard from his wife all morning and his calls to the home phone and her mobile had gone unanswered he asked if she could go to the family home to check on Rachel and make sure everything was okay whilst he traveled to collect the children Joe called Rachel's phone again saying he was driving down the motorway and had spoken to Rose who also hadn't heard from her and he begged her to call him back Joe phoned Rachel's youngest brother Anthony to tell him that he hadn't heard from her and that she hadn't gone to the crash when she was supposed to to get their son family members tried calling the home phone and her mobile too but all the calls rang out Rose had a feeling that something was seriously wrong this was not like Rachel so she set off to check on her daughter when she pulled up at The Bungalow she immediately had a sense of relief as Rachel's car was in the driveway the patio door was open the house was silent some of the kitchen drawers were open and items were scattered across the floor in the living room the videos were all dumped in a pile it looked as though the house had been ransacked she then went to Rachel and Joe's bedroom Rose found her daughter's lifeless body she was lying on her back in a pool of blood with the upper half of her body Twisted there was so much congealed Blood The Rose said she was unable to determine if her daughter's face was on its side or if she was face down blood covered the walls the ceiling and there was even blood spatter in the bathroom when she touched her she said Rachel was as cold as marble a neighbor said she heard Rose screaming Rose ran to her bag to get her phone and call the police she then called one of her sons Declan to tell him the horrifying news Declan said he was going to come to the house and so was Jim Rose's husband Joe got to the house at 2 30 with the children and Rose told him she had found Rachel's body he ran into the house shouting her name when he came to her body he said Jesus Rachel what did you do Rachel's best friend Jackie was a nurse and she went to the house she too checked Rachel and confirmed there was no pulse and she wasn't breathing Rachel's Father Jim soon arrived but was told by a police officer to not go inside as the scene was too horrific when the first police officer got to the scene Joe went up to them in the garden and said he had been in the house and touched Rachel's body to check for a pulse Anne said that he had moved a box near to where her body lay into the boys room he said he hoped he hadn't destroyed any evidence when Joe was spoken to by the police he had an alibi he said he had been at a bus depot in Broadstone and it seemed unlikely that he would have been able to travel all that way to the house and back in the time frame given so who would have wanted Rachel dead and why Rachel callally had been adopted as a baby as had her four other siblings by their parents Jim and Rose the family was incredibly close Rachel always made time to catch up with her parents and siblings her three brothers Anthony Declan and Paul and her sister Anne Rachel was athletic and played softball even holding a softball world record she was described as a live wire and someone with a really good heart Rose referred to her as a brilliant ray of sunshine who was well behaved as a child but also adventurous throwing herself into everything she could her father Jim said that she was someone who would give anything a go and loved being independent with a knack for DIY and decorating when she was 17 she met Joe O'Reilly who was two years older than her while they worked at the same department store he said the first thing he noticed about her was her height Rachel stood at five foot eleven and Joe was six foot five he had asked her to go on a date with him several times and she turned him down but Joe continued to ask Joe overheard that she played softball and one day turned up at her practice session and joined her team they were both successful and even had the potential to turn pro their relationship then became a romantic one at the top of the Eiffel Tower job asked Rachel to marry him and a couple of years later the pair were wed they then welcomed two sons they moved to their new house a bungalow called Lambe view in Nall in 2003. it was the perfect place to raise their children Rachel loved being a mother and everything she did was for her two boys Joe O'Reilly had also come from a close family with him being the second eldest of two boys and two girls but his circumstances were different when he was young the marriage between his parents had fallen apart and his father had left the country and moved to England Joe was described as an incredibly confident man and he was determined to get ahead in the advertising industry despite not having the qualifications he was so persuasive and confident with clients that his lack of credentials didn't appear to matter he would get into work early and leave late determined to make his goals come to fruition when they moved into their three-bedroom Bungalow Rose did have some concerns she was worried that Rachel would be lonely living there as Joe was away from home so much with work but Rachel seemed to be delighted with the move she became well known in the area as she sold Avon and tupperware and within a few weeks of moving in she held a barbecue so she could meet and get to know her new neighbors in spite of wanting to appear to be a family man some of Rachel's friends said Joe was more of an absent father and Rachel was left to do a significant amount of the parenting on her own he would always leave the house early in order to go to the gym and often wouldn't be back until well into the evening Rachel was more of a private person who didn't talk about her marital problems but some could sense there might be issues between the two of them [Music] who the now retired detective inspector Pat Murray was then a detective Sergeant at balbriggan Garda station when he arrived on scene as he was a qualified scene of crime examiner with plenty of experience under his belt he went in to see exactly what they were dealing with in all his years in the police he was shocked by just how brutal this killing had been it's a sight I will never forget my God she was pulverized her hair was matted in blood you could see down to her skull you could see there was severe Force used to inflict that so the poor woman had no chance whatsoever absolutely none it was Savage cold just unbelievable her father Jim said that Rachel would afford for her life with everything she had and he believed that the killer had attacked her from behind although it didn't initially appear to be a robbery gone wrong one thing immediately stood out there was money in the home that hadn't been taken 800 Euros in a box in the kitchen and 400 in Rachel's bag based on what he found Pat didn't believe that this was a random attack carried out by a stranger it's highly unusual to see someone in the state I saw Rachel O'Reilly having administered such a beating the viciousness of the assault was a pure display of hate for this woman if you hate someone that much you're going to know them Pat Murray believed the robbery had been staged they set up an incident room back at the station and more than 40 officers were sent out to conduct door-to-door inquiries and search the local area to try and uncover any potential Clues [Music] news soon began to spread that a brutal murder had been committed people were stunned based on the scene of the crime the police believe she had been caught totally off guard by the attack searches were carried out to try and find the murder weapon but they proved fruitless but the Searchers did uncover something interesting half a mile away from the house a plastic bag was found containing jewelry and a camera two items that Joe had said were missing it was looking less and less like a burglary Joe was questioned that evening he said he left for work as normal and headed to the gym beforehand he was seen on CCTV leaving work at 807 am and he said he was going to a bus depot in Broadstone and his colleague Derek werny said he would meet him there part of Joe's job was checking the advertisements on the side of buses so he would have to travel around at 8 45 Derek set off and when he got to the depot he called Joe to ask him whereabouts he was Joe said he was in another part of the depot Derek was questioned and he confirmed he had spoken to Joe on the phone when he got to the depot and he had been told that he was there just in a different part of the site when he first made that statement Derek was unaware that Rachel had been murdered when he questioned Joe Pat asked if there was anyone who was known to not like Rachel or maybe if she had been seeing someone else romantically what Joe said left Pat confused Joe replied no neither of us were having an affair Pat hadn't asked if Joe was having an affair so why had he felt the need to clarify he hadn't been but then the truth came out Joe had been unfaithful telling Pat it's over now I don't want anyone to know he said he had had a brief fling with a woman called Nikki Pelly and it hadn't been a serious relationship he had told Rachel three times that he hadn't been having an affair he said that the couple had had an argument the day before she was killed and he had slept in the spare room the day after Rachel was found Nikki was questioned by the police she confirmed what Joe had said there had been a relationship but it wasn't a serious one the same day the police received the results of Rachel's post-mortem it revealed that she had been bludgeoned with a heavy object such as a dumbbell this was one of the items that Joe had said was missing from the property her skull had been fractured in two places and her face shoulders and neck had multiple lacerations defensive wounds on her arms showed that she had made an attempt to fight off her attacker it was determined that she had been struck between six and nine times blood was also found in her Airways which would have made it very difficult for her to breathe a couple of days after the murder research of Joe's office at work was carried out and his laptop was seized a series of emails had been deleted but the police recovered them Joe had been talking to his sister Anne about their marriage in which he revealed his deep hatred for Rachel using vulgar language and expletives to refer to her even saying that she repulsed him when the emails that had been so derogatory about Rachel came to light Rose said the family was bereft that any person could be spoken about in such an appalling manner news of the marital problems was a massive shock to Rose too who said he was a loner he was very strange I never thought though there was anything bad about him I thought he was a very good husband and a very good father at family gatherings he would tend to break off from the adults and nobody really knew a lot about him the house was cordoned off for nine days giving the scene of crime investigators the chance to thoroughly go through and document everything whilst the investigation continued the family prepared for her burial they all decided to write letters that were to be put into the coffin with her when she was buried the family left Joe with the Undertaker to say some private words to his wife and when one of them went back in Joe said you can put the lid on it now with Jim saying it sounded like he was talking about a tin box not his wife's coffin her parents felt these were very strange and detached comments for an allegedly traumatized widower to make her family then gathered for her funeral following the burial her parents received the cards that were attached to the flowers that people had left and one of them stood out all Joe's card said was see you later Joe 's Behavior had become increasingly strange and unusual the police had told him he could now go back into the house and he needed to go through everything and make a note of anything he thought had been stolen he reiterated what he had said some of her jewelry a camera and two towels were gone as well as one of the dumbbells but the jewelry in the camera had now been accounted for he also decided to invite Rose and Jim over even though the house hadn't been cleaned and it still had their daughter's blood everywhere he said that there was a sense of peace and that it would be good for them to visit Rose didn't want to go back into the house the gym said that if it had helped Joe process what had happened maybe it could help them to their shock Joe began reenacting the murder and speculating as to how she had been bludgeoned even pointing to the blood spatter on the ceiling he showed them the blood on the walls adding that he thought maybe the killer had stepped over her body and then cleaned up in the bathroom whilst listening to Rachel as she choked on her own blood and that the killer had gone back into the room to quote finish her off when they went back downstairs Joe was adamant that they listened to the voicemails he had left for her that day Rose said she could hear Rachel's voice in her head saying he did it later that night Rose spoke to Jim about what she was feeling Jim was distraught and asked her not to talk to anyone else saying that people reacted to grief in different ways and that Joe was just behaving as if he was in shock because he was so cool and calm I couldn't speak to Jim about it after that because he would get so upset but I said I'm not going to say it to you again but I'm just asking you to be open-minded Joe also started speaking to the media he said the family were worried that the killer could possibly strike again and he went on television to appeal for information why Rachel why then what did she do in in your opinion to deserve this uh are you gonna do it again if you are you know you need help what you've done is wrong you've taken away a very young life for no good reason I feel I know you because you had to kill her you couldn't leave her alive to to identify him so it's a matter of time before you're found journalist Jenny Friel interviewed Joe at the house and before long he asked her if she wanted to see the bedroom Rachel had been murdered in she said this took her by surprise and when he pointed out where the blood had been and where she was found Jenny said that although she was not squeamish about most things this made her feel sick another journalist Kieran O'Brien went to the house 12 days after the murder and took photographs including one of Joe sitting in his kitchen Joe said that the police were treating him as a suspect Kieran asked him if he believed he was a suspect Joe said yes Kieran said that he had never had an encounter like that in his whole career people from within the community and the couple's friendship circles call Joe to offer their condolences and asked if there was anything they could do to help he would offer to show them the scene of the crime and what he thought had happened something that was later referred to as the murder tours on the 22nd of October Joe appeared alongside Rose as a guest on The Late Late Show with Pat Kenny Prime Time talk show in Ireland Joe's Behavior backstage set alarm bells ringing Pat Murray spoke to the staff who worked on the show and they said he didn't appear to be a man who was grieving he helped himself to food and refreshments and spent most of his time on his phone whereas Jim and Rose couldn't even look at a cup of tea Joe's appearance did nothing to stop people's ever-growing suspicions and what follows is a clip from that episode based on the situation you found you both found in the house I mean did you get the sense that she'd been taken unaware is that this was someone that perhaps she trusted and or yeah I think so where the murder happened was in the bedroom which is the very last room of the house so it's the room where you're least likely to bring someone you don't know because you're cornered and my view as well would be and again it's just my view it's on a police Theory it's just my own personal belief is that she knew the person because why else would you kill her it was a violent robbery why go to the extreme of murdering the person unless they can identify you and that's why we've talked about this and practically nothing else the last three weeks we just feel it's someone she would have known or someone she could have identified the show had offered offered to said he had to meet her client but this was a lie he instead went and visited his lover Nikki he was on the television to appeal for information about the murder of his wife and he spent the night with the woman he had been having an affair with news of the affair broke in the media the interest only increased journalist Jenny Friel said that looking back over her notes from the interview with him he hadn't actually mentioned loving his wife or how much he would miss her he spoke about how devastated the children were but nothing about his feelings about it despite German Nikki's efforts to play down their relationship it was becoming clear that this had been a long-term Affair over several months they had met whilst working at the Viacom advertising agency after going for a night out at a pub they swapped email addresses and mobile phone numbers to keep in contact he would tell Rachel he was away for work and he would instead go and see Nikki they spoke on the phone every day and would meet each other two times a week all while he vehemently denied any Affair to Rachel six weeks after Rachel was murdered two arrests were made Nikki Pelley was taken into custody for withholding information and Derek the colleague who had given Joe his Alibi was also arrested when Derek was interviewed he said he couldn't be too sure about the timings and that they could be off by 40 minutes Nikki also had a different version of events to the one she had previously given she admitted that their relationship was far more serious than she had initially said and that Joe had asked her to play it down to the police both were released without charge the next day Joe O'Reilly was taken into custody he refused to answer questions offering no comment throughout the police had no murder weapon or forensic evidence they did have CCTV footage showing a car similar to his in the area at the time but the number plate could not be made out as a result two days later he too was released without charge the family then asked the police if the letter Joe had put into Rachel's coffin could be looked at believing he had maybe written something incriminating on it an exhumation order was granted March 8 2005. Rachel's body was exhumed and Joe's letter was removed it was chemically treated and using infrared technology they could finally read what he had said it was five pages and included the following passage Rachel I love you so very very much I cannot think what I will ever do without you and I don't want to think you were the best thing that ever happened to me and you will never be replaced this is the hardest letter I've ever had to write for reasons only we know Rachel please forgive me two words one sentence but I will say them forever the note was considered to be ambiguous and not enough to have him arrested again although for her family this solidified their belief that he was guilty in December 2005 14 months after the murder the police were still trying to build their case the car that had been spotted on the CCTV footage appeared to be the same make and model as Joe's a blue fee at Maria despite having the footage enhanced it still didn't clearly show the license plate so the officers devised a plan to prove that it was Joe's Car on the footage and nobody else's they search the database for all other Fiat Maria drivers in the country and it came back with 2 500 matches although they could not eliminate every single driver of that car in Ireland they were able to rule out enough that it made it far more likely that it was Joe's Car the police also contacted O2 to see if they had any recordings of calls that Joe had made on the day his wife had been murdered whilst they couldn't provide that they did have something interesting they brought in an engineer from France and he was able to determine which masts Joe's phone had been close to throughout the day they were then able to plot his whole route and the more the police looked into where his phone had been the more damning it became at 5 45 that morning Joe had left to go to the gym located on the outskirts of the city where he was due to meet Derek he went to the petrol station and filled up his fee at Maria whilst there he received a call from Nikki this was the first of eight calls that day and they stayed on the phone for 28 minutes something else he had failed to mention he went to the gym where he had a shower before heading to work he sent an email to another colleague Kieran where he said that his phone would be out of service for the majority of the morning and he arranged to meet him at 2PM despite him telling Derek that he was in another part of the depot analysis of Joe's phone showed he had actually been headed in the direction of his family home whilst his phone was out by the house Joe didn't make a call or text but he had got a call from Derek at 9 25 and a text from a different colleague at 9 52. the phone had pinged off of a tower at Murphy's Quarry this was the nearest Mass to the house and the Quarry could even be seen from the property the car that the police believed was Joe's was caught on CCTV passing the Quarry if Joe was at Broadstone where he had told police he was why therefore was his phone pinging off the Murphy's Quarry Mast less than a mile away from his home as Joe had made it clear he always had his phone with him this added to the weight of their case a 959 the car was seen going past the Quarry again driving away from the home it was only after this that the foam was placed in Broadstone somewhere he said he had been all morning at 9am Rachel had left with the two boys to take them to the crash in school and three minutes later CCTV filmed her passing the Quarry too the same camera showed her coming back at 9 41 am it was believed she was murdered shortly after arriving home when the texts were sent to Rachel asking if she had slept okay the police checked the corresponding time on the CCTV cameras and these also picked up a blue Fiat Maria being driven 10 minutes after the text had been sent they drove the route from where the text had been sent from to the CCTV camera and it took about 10 minutes Joe arrived back at the office at roughly 12 o'clock when he arrived back at work something stood out to one of his colleagues she noticed that he appeared to be a bit flushed and red in the face and it looked as though he had been crying she asked him if everything was okay and he said it was she told him that he looked terrible and he immediately panicked and sped off towards his office he stayed there until the call came in that Rachel had failed to pick their son up from the crash when Nikki had been released without charge it emerged that she had told a friend it was hard to continue to lie to the police Nikki told her that Joe had said if he killed Rachel he could get away with it she was brought back in for questioning and she admitted that he had said this but she said she didn't believe he was being serious the police later found out that Rachel had told a friend about a huge argument she had had with Joe she had told him he needed to change his behavior or leave it also emerged that just four months before Rachel had been killed Social Services had received an anonymous tip alleging that Rachel was not fit to be a mother the claims were absolutely unfounded Joe and his sister Anne emailed back and forth about the incident with social services and used various swear words to refer to Rachel and asked how she got out of this one Joe replied saying that social services confirmed what he had thought if they were to divorce he likely wouldn't get full custody and be able to cut Rachel out of the picture in March 2006 Derek querny was brought in by police and questioned during one of the interviews due to the stress Derek actually vomited into a bin in the corner of the room he then said that the statement he had made previously couldn't have been correct and that the timings could be wrong Joe was arrested for a second time Pat Murray was hopeful that they now had enough to charge him based on all of the phone analysis and how this tied to the CCTV footage as well as the elimination of the other drivers of the same car both the director of public prosecutions said they needed more does the guy these Chief suspect and the killing of Rachel O'Reilly was released without charge Pat Maori recalled how Joe had put his thumb up to him when leaving and how he didn't seem to care at all about the seriousness of the situation or what had happened on the second anniversary of Rachel's murder her family held a Mass for her it was held outside Lambe View but the children did not attend and neither did Joe gifted life to me and Rose calorie singing at her daughter's anniversary Mass showing just how strong she has remained since Rachel was murdered two years ago oh I feel that everyone is behind her definitely yes yeah and hopefully it'll get Justice for her because that's the big thing now and Mary full of grace the Lord is with me analysis of mobile phone data revealed more damning evidence Joe's phone had pinged off of a mast close to the family home when Rachel's murder had taken place contradicting his statement that he had been a work miles away at a Depot and the more the police looked into where his phone had been the more damning it became the evidence was finally enough October 2006. police arrived at Joe's mother's house Pat Murray went into the kitchen put his hand on Joe's shoulder and told him he was under arrest for the murder of Rachel he said he turned and face me the blood drained from his face and he went white as a sheet he was not expecting it detective Sergeant Pat Murray told of the court that at 10 55 am he formally charged Mr O'Reilly with the murder of his wife Rachel O'Reilly he entered a plea of not guilty June 25 2007 Joe O'Reilly went on trial the media and public interest was unprecedented cues formed every day as people tried to get into the public gallery to watch the trial Rachel's family had not seen him in eight months so coming face to face with him again at the court was an especially painful experience Jim said he had a fierce arrogance and Rose described him as detached the defense argued that the prosecution had based their case on innuendo Spin and allegation and that it was nothing more than circumstantial but what came out showed that the image Joe had been desperately trying to uphold that of being a happily married family man was nothing but a lie the evidence was strong phone analysis the emails insulting his wife him lying about where he was the downplaying of the affair and his behavior after the fact painted a damning picture the emails and texts between Nikki and Joe were presented to the court and showed that they had planned to start a life together the texts that had been exchanged revealed that Joe often told Nikki he loved her and he would imply that the boys were her children referring to one of them as our boy this was providing a motive for wanting Rachel out of the picture he had attempted to tarnish a character calling her a lazy mother who was heavy-handed with the children it also inadvertently came out that the one who had made the anonymous report to Social Services containing the allegations that were determined to be utterly unfounded was Joe's own mother the court was stunned by these Revelations concerned when she heard her daughter Rachel hadn't picked up her son from the crash on October 4th 2004. she drove to her home in the Noel North County Dublin and discovered the body of her 30 year old daughter Barefoot lying on the floor She emotionally told the courthouse she knelt beside her talking to her and rubbing her arms before frantically trying to call the emergency services on her mobile she said Rachel's husband Joe O'Reilly the man accused of her murder arrived at home shortly afterwards she said his first words to his wife were Jesus Rachel what did you do throughout the trial Joe kept his head down looking firmly at the floor showing no emotion on the occasions he did look up it was to talk to his lawyers whilst he laughed and joked it was put to the court that at 9 45 Rachel had arrived home and Joe her husband of 13 years and the father of her children was lying in wait for her in the bedroom when she went in he launched his attack bludgeoning her repeatedly after beating her it's thought that he took a shower to wash the blood off before putting his clothes and towels into the washing machine he then attempted to ransack the place and make it look as though they had been broken into he then went and put the allegedly stolen items into a bag and dropped them by the Stream when the Crasher contacted him to say that Rachel hadn't arrived to pick their son up Joe stalled and spent more time there than necessary all of this was to ensure that Rose would be the one to find her daughter's body the testimony of pathologist Professor Marie Cassidy the former State pathologist of Ireland also showed that when Joe had reenacted the murder including how the killer had likely heard her gurgling and choking on her own blood and then gone back to strike her again he had been telling the truth the court also heard from Fiona Slevin she had testified about a conversation she had had with Joe on the same day Rachel's funeral was held she said he had told her I don't know why they're looking in the fields the murder weapon is in the water she added it was like he said something he shouldn't have she told the court he then said well if I did it that's where it would be there's water all around that would get rid of all the DNA on the 11th day of the trial the phone triangulation was put to the court it showed how his phone had been tracked all the way to the vicinity of his house when he said he was at the bus depot on the morning of Rachel's murder it was a groundbreaking set of evidence never before had a murder trial used mobile phone triangulation in this way or to such an extent and two days later more shocking evidence came to light emails were read to the court the jury was given details of an exchange of emails between Joe O'Reilly and his and his sister Anne on the 9th of June 2004 four months before Rachel was killed The Pact Court was quiet as the emails were read out afterwards Rachel O'Reilly's mother Rose callally and her sister Anne were in tears foreign day of the trial Nikki Paley testified Ms Kelly told the court she and Joe talked about being together permanently in the future when she was first interviewed by Gordy she told them it was just an affair she said Joe told her she should say that asked why she said it was because if she said it was a relationship it would give him a reason to kill Rachel the way Joe had courted the media painted a picture of a cold individual who was desperate to control the narrative Joe had convinced Rose to go on the lay Late Show saying it was the police who believed it was a good idea the opposite was true Joe had been told to disengage and not talk to the media anymore one of Rachel's brothers would later say he liked that feeling he enjoyed people's reactions in my head it's not human not normal but that's the way he is I honestly believe he is a psychopath the 21st of July 2007. the jury returned their verdict at the central Criminal Court Joe O'Reilly was found guilty of murder he was given a life sentence the emotion outside echoed some of the most extraordinary scenes ever seen in this court the jury brought in a unanimous verdict after nine and a half hours of deliberating the courtroom erupted into loud cheers and Applause the calorie family jumped to their feet and punched the air they then pressed into tears supporters cheered as Joe O'Reilly was driven to Mount Joy jail in a prison van Rachel's family watched as their daughter's killer was taken away to begin his life sentence we'd love to thank everybody the police in particular they have been so brilliant absolutely brilliant and the prosecution team and all the people of Ireland that have been behind us with cards letters prayers it all meant so much to us and at long last we've got Justice for our darling Rachel Joe O'Reilly attempted to bring his case to the court of appeal but was unsuccessful following this he tried to take it to the Supreme Court this was also refused in November 2016. it was also reported that he had abandoned plans to take his appeal to the European courts in May 2015 an appeal lodged by Joe to have his conviction declared a miscarriage of Justice was refused he has been refused parole at least three times and Rachel's family will continue to fight to ensure that he remains in prison in 2012 Joe's brother Derek said that Nikki still loved Joe and was standing by him believing that he was innocent as did he the Joe I know is not a scumbag he said he is most definitely not a wife-beater and he most definitely isn't a devil the Joe O'Reilly I know is anything but the ultimate Evil I've never had any reason to doubt him Nikki Pali continued to visit him weekly in prison believing in his innocence it was reported in 2022 that Joe and Nikki had ended their relationship for a second time with the first time being in 2017 sources say they remain close and best friends more tragedy would hit the Galilee family when in 2010 Rose and Jim's other daughter Anne passed away at the age of 31. following a battle with cancer with just two weeks between her passing and the anniversary of Rachel's death Rose described How Deeply affected Anne was by her sister's death as soon as our Rachel died Ouran used to arrive up at the door at three o'clock four o'clock in the morning she was petrified and she was afraid of him she never rested she always thought she could hear noises someone trying to get in for those Left Behind life after Rachel's murder has been a painful journey to navigate Rose published a book about her daughter's case titled remembering Rachel the story of Rachel O'Reilly's life and brutal death she said I don't want anyone to ever forget what was done to Rachel in any shape or form the tragedy of this case is perhaps best summarized by the words of her mother Rose I'd love her to be remembered as this bubbly person that we had for such a short time that touched everybody's hearts I wish I could go back I'd give anything to be able to hold her even just for one minute foreign [Music] for those of you that like to listen on the go we now have our episodes in podcast form and you can now find this via the link in our description box or by searching truly criminal podcast on your podcasting platforms [Music]

Channel: Truly Criminal

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Length: 41min 46sec (2506 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 12 2023