Former sergeants book on missing women

Between 1993 and 1998, six Irish women, ranging in age from eighteen to twenty eight, disappeared. The area in which these disappearances occurred became publicly referred to as ‘The Vanishing Triangle’. To date, none of the missing females have ever been located.

These six unsolved cases resulted in the creation of the specialist Garda task force 'Operation Trace', set up in the hope of finding a connection between the missing women. The task force investigated dozens of unsolved cases of women gone missing in Ireland. Alan Bailey served as the National Coordinator for the task force for thirteen years, and the revealing stories in 'Missing, Presumed' all come from his personal experiences in this role.

Missing, Presumed details the Garda investigations into the case studies of fifteen women who disappeared over an incredulous time span of twenty years. In almost half of the cases, the women's badly mutilated bodies were recovered, buried in shallow graves. Each chapter focuses on one woman’s story, detailing the timeline of events that led to her disappearance, beginning on the day of her disappearance through to the ensuing investigation, and up to – when lucky – a conviction. These stories are haunting, terrifying, and true.

Alan Bailey served thirteen years as National Coordinator for the specialist Garda taskforce 'Operation Trace' alongside his role as detective Sergeant in charge of the Garda Serious Crime Review Team. A trained CSI examiner, with a diploma in Criminology, Alan is now retired and works as a Human Resource Manager at the Capuchin Day Centre in Dublin.