All of the evidence has been heard in the Graham Dwyer murder trial and all that is left for the jurors now is to decide whether they believe the Foxrock architect stabbed Elaine to death.
Over 360 exhibits were shown during the trial and the jury heard from almost 200 witnesses.
Elaine O’Hara was considered a missing person until a human bone was found by Milly the dog in a wooded part of Killakee Mountain in Rathfarnham on August 22nd 2012. Milly’s owner went to investigate and a full murder investigation was launched soon afterwards.
Here are some of the key dates in the lead up to Mr. Justice Paul Carney’s “squeamish warning” as he swore in seven men and five women to hear the trial before the Central Criminal Court:
Key Dates
Mar 2011: An 083 texter gets in touch with Elaine O’Hara to renew a BDSM sexual relationship that existed some years beforehand.
Jan 21 2012 to Aug 15 2012: CCTV footage shows Graham Dwyer visiting Elaine’s apartment complex at Belarmine Plaza nine times between these dates. He is spotted with the childcare worker in footage recorded on July 9th 2012 and is last seen leaving the complex on August 15th 2012 with a backpack.
Aug 21 2012: A Buck Special hunting knife is delivered to Graham Dwyer’s office on Lower Baggot Street.
Aug 22 2012: Elaine O’Hara is discharged from St. Edmundsbury psychiatric hospital in Lucan. She visits her father in the afternoon and they go to her mother’s grave at Shanganagh Cemetery near Shankill in south County Dublin. She leaves her father’s house at 4pm to return to her own place at Belarmine Plaza in Stepaside. She tells him she wants to get some rest because she is volunteering with the Tall Ships festival the following day. A jogger told Gardai he bumped into her while out for a run at around 5.45pm. She asked him for directions to a nearby railway footbridge which leads down to the shore. He pointed her in the right direction and bumped into her again near the bridge a short time later. This was the last reported sighting of Elaine O’Hara. The defence also called a witness during the trial who claims she saw a woman fitting Elaine’s description at Shanganagh Cemetery just after 5pm that day. She said the woman was face down near some graves and crying loudly.
Aug 23 2012: Elaine doesn’t show up for her lift to the Tall Ships festival.
Aug 24 2012: Elaine’s father reports his daughter missing to Gardai. A preliminary search of her apartment follows and Gardai find chains, a black PVC suit and a rope. The name of an S&M website was written in her diary. Her brother looks it up and finds the profile ‘chained brunette’ which he believes was his sister’s.
Aug 31 2012: A document entitled: ‘The Gorean Lifestyle: A Woman’s Right is Slave” is among the items seized during a forensic search of Elaine’s home.
Sept 10 2013: Three local anglers spot something shiny in the Vartry reservoir near Roundwood, Co. Wicklow. They recover some clothing, a rope, handcuffs, a rubber ball gag, leg restraints and a black blindfold from the water and leave them on the bridge.
Sept 11 2013: Local fisherman William Fegan returns to the bridge over the Vartry reservoir and brings the items to Roundwood Garda Station where he hands them over to Garda James O’Donoghue.
Sept 13 2013: A French dog walker stumbles upon some skeletal remains while out walking her dogs on Killakee Mountain in Rathfarnham. Tracksuit bottoms and a running show are also found near the bones.
Sept 15 2013: A post mortem gets underway at Dublin City Morgue. The Deputy State Pathologist Dr. Michael Curtis only has 65% of the skeleton. The skull and bones from the arms and hands have never been recovered. The remains are eventually identified as Elaine O’Hara’s with the help of dental records but Dr. Curtis is unable to establish an exact cause of death without the missing 35% of her skeleton.
Sept 16 2013: Garda James O’Donoghue wades into the Vartry reservoir where he finds a set of keys with a Dunnes Stores loyalty card. He also finds a leather bondage mask and a knife.
Sept 17 2013: A Dunnes Stores representative contacts Garda O’Donoghue to tell him the loyalty card he found in the reservoir is registered to a woman called Elaine O’Hara. He runs a name check and realises she is registered as a missing person.
Sept 19 2013: A blood stained mattress with five puncture marks is taken from Ms. O’Hara’s apartment. A forensic scientist at Garda HQ found semen in five areas on the mattress. Three of them were full DNA matches for Graham Dwyer while the other two were partial matches.
Oct 7 2013: Garda divers recover two Nokia mobile phones in the Vartry reservoir. The prosecution dubbed these the MASTER and SLAVE phones. It is alleged Graham Dwyer and Elaine O’Hara used these prepaid phones to contact each other in the lead up to her death. Various other BDSM items were found during this search.
Oct 17 2013: Graham Dwyer is arrested at his home at Kerrymount Close, Foxrock on suspicion of murdering Elaine O’Hara. His wife and kids are in the house at the time and arrangements are made to allow Gardai carry out a two day search during which computers and a hard drive are seized. The architect is taken to Blackrock Garda Station for questioning.
Oct 18 2013: Graham Dwyer appears before Dun Laoghaire District Court charged with Elaine O’Hara’s murder. The firm where Mr. Dwyer worked for 12 years (A&D Wejchert & Partners Architects) is searched and a number of computers and other electronic devices are seized as part of the investigation.
January 2014: Mr. Dwyer is sent forward for trial before the Central Criminal Court.
February 17 2014: Graham Dwyer’s solicitor provides Gardai with a sketch drawn by the accused. It is a map of the A&D Wejchert’s basement that leads investigating officers to a filing box. A Buck Special hunting knife and a smaller flick knife are found hidden underneath some files. No forensic evidence is found on the knives.
January 19 2015: Graham Dwyer pleads NOT guilty to murdering Elaine O’Hara on August 22 2012 at Killakee Mountain in Rathfarnham. A jury of seven men and five women is sworn in to hear his trial. Before they are selected, Mr. Justice Paul Carney gives them a number of warnings about the trial. “This case would be difficult for anybody who is particularly squeamish,” he says. “So if anybody is particularly squeamish, that’s a matter they might indicate”.
Jan 20 2015: Mr. Sean Guerin SC opens the prosecution’s case against the Foxrock architect before a packed courtroom on Day 1 of his trial. Reporters would later need to be allocated specific seats and members of the public would often queue for hours to get into Court 13 at the Central Criminal Court to watch the trial unfold before Mr. Justice Tony Hunt.
