Ireland's Shocking Crime: Ana Kriégel Murder Unraveled - Part 1
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00:00 [Music]
00:27 On the 18th of February 2004, a little girl called Anastasia was born in the industrial city of Novokuznetsk, Russia,
00:35 and was later placed in an orphanage.
00:37 After two years of being there, she was eventually adopted.
00:41 Geraldine and Patrick Creagel completed the paperwork and Anna was officially their daughter,
00:47 and she would move thousands of miles away to live with them in the Republic of Ireland.
00:51 She was the first child for the couple.
00:54 Geraldine worked as a senior manager in the legal department of the CIE, the State Public Transport Company.
01:00 Patrick taught French at the Dublin Institute of Technology and would later retire.
01:06 Even though Geraldine and her French-born husband had no cultural links to Russia,
01:10 they were determined that Anna would not lose touch with her Russian roots.
01:14 They learned about Russian culture and kept her birth name.
01:18 Every year she would celebrate two special days,
01:21 her birthday on the 18th of February and her adoption day on the 10th of August.
01:27 Anna was spirited and feisty, and one could always tell when she was around.
01:31 She was incredibly athletic and loved swimming and dancing.
01:34 She would spend loads of time in front of the mirror, practising her dancing and having fun, as well as singing.
01:40 Anna was described as very sensitive and innocent,
01:43 and during her early years, while she was happy, she did have several health problems.
01:48 She was left almost deaf in her right ear after a tumour was removed,
01:52 in an operation lasting almost six hours.
01:55 She would also have problems with her sight.
01:58 As she entered her teens, she suffered from a painful condition,
02:01 sometimes seen in adolescence, that occurs when the bones grow faster than the muscles.
02:06 Emotional problems began to appear as primary school started to come to an end.
02:10 On one occasion, her parents were alerted that Anna had told a teacher that she was feeling suicidal.
02:16 Anna's resource teacher told Geraldine and Patrick that she was terrified for her to make the move and go to secondary school,
02:22 because she was so innocent.
02:24 She feared other students would take advantage of this.
02:27 Her mother and father met early with the senior staff of the secondary school
02:30 to highlight their concerns about Anna being a potential target for bullies.
02:34 Much of the bullying was about her height.
02:37 By the time she was 13, she was already 5ft 8 and looked older than she actually was.
02:42 The bullies also mocked her for being adopted,
02:45 telling her she didn't have real parents.
02:48 Geraldine and Patrick took screenshots of some of the messages and showed them to the school,
02:53 but even after she started there, the situation didn't improve.
02:57 That October, Anna came home hysterical and incredibly shaken.
03:01 She had been walking back after supervising a disco for young children when four boys approached her.
03:07 One continuously asked her for sex before he touched her.
03:10 They filed a complaint with the Garda Síochána, the Irish police,
03:14 and the boy was cautioned for his actions.
03:17 After painting a black eye on herself, she was suspended from school.
03:22 Geraldine believed that her painting the black eye was an expression of her internal pain and turmoil.
03:27 There were also fights at the school, one of which resulted in a suspension.
03:32 All she wanted were friends her own age that she could be with, but she had few.
03:37 As Anna's inner pain continued to mount,
03:40 she began to set up fake social media accounts to send bullying messages to herself.
03:46 Following this, Geraldine demanded that Anna gave her access to all of her apps so that she could check them.
03:52 On Sunday 13th May 2018, with exams the following week,
03:56 Geraldine and Anna had plans to sit down and study,
03:59 but as there was a family gathering in a few hours, they decided to relax instead.
04:03 They decided to watch films and eat popcorn.
04:06 As the party was due to start soon, Geraldine ordered a pizza,
04:10 and Anna walked into Leek Slip to go to the Chinese Takeaway instead.
04:14 During that evening, Anna and her cousin went to her bedroom to make a YouTube video.
04:18 Anna loved YouTube, and it was her favourite of the social media apps.
04:22 Her videos were about clothes, make-up and dancing, and she had accumulated around 100 subscribers.
04:27 While most of the comments were positive, some of them were threatening and abusive.
04:32 One told her to "go die", and another said they would have her executed.
04:37 As the party wound down at around 10.30pm, Anna headed to bed.
04:42 May 14th 2018
04:46 Geraldine was usually the first one up in the morning.
04:51 Anna reminded her that she would be leaving school at 2.30pm
04:54 to attend her weekly counselling session with Kildare Youth Services,
04:57 and would need a note to get out of school.
04:59 After writing the note and giving her a kiss goodbye,
05:02 Geraldine left to catch the train to go to her meeting in Dublin.
05:05 The plan had been for Anna to eat lunch at school before walking to her counselling appointment,
05:09 but she decided to head home to eat before going to her session.
05:13 After finishing her counselling, she came home and headed to her room.
05:17 At 4.02pm, Anna rang her mother, but as she was in a meeting, she couldn't answer,
05:21 and sent a text replying to say that she would call her shortly.
05:25 Geraldine and Anna regularly called and texted each other throughout the day,
05:28 and always made time to talk to each other.
05:31 Her father, Patrick, was in the garden relaxing when he heard the doorbell at 4.55pm.
05:36 Opening the door, it was a boy that Anna vaguely knew.
05:39 As this boy is a child, he will be referred to throughout the rest of this episode as 'Boy B'.
05:45 When Patrick told her he was at the door for her, she was confused.
05:50 Whilst she knew who he was, they weren't friends.
05:53 Despite this, she went down to speak to him.
05:55 Patrick saw the pair standing in the hallway whispering,
05:58 thinking it wasn't unusual and he would later remark, "I think a lot of teens do it."
06:03 She ran back to her bedroom to fetch her hoodie that her mother had bought for her.
06:07 The hoodie was a distinctive black and white one.
06:10 Patrick reminded her about her exams and told her she needed to study.
06:14 Anna said she wouldn't be long, gave him a big smile and left.
06:18 Patrick had forgot to ask her where she was going,
06:21 and after opening the door, he saw the pair walking towards St. Catharines Park.
06:25 They didn't appear to be talking, and Boy B, who was carrying a small backpack, was walking ahead of her.
06:31 At 5.10pm, Geraldine was back on the train and heading home and was free to call Anna back.
06:38 Anna didn't answer and her mum didn't leave a message because she would soon be at home and able to see Anna.
06:44 When she got home, Patrick was in the garden and told her that Anna had gone out with Boy B who had called for her.
06:50 Geraldine was immediately worried as, in her words, "nobody calls for Anna."
06:55 Shortly after 5.30pm, Geraldine texted her daughter a two-word message, "Home. Now. Answer me now or I'm calling the police."
07:06 Geraldine decided to walk to the park to see if she could see her, but her search turned up nothing.
07:14 After dinner, she headed back out in the car and drove around.
07:18 Anna loved going on long walks while she listened to music, but she still couldn't be found.
07:23 Once she returned home, she and Patrick headed onto Facebook to try and find Boy B.
07:28 They did vaguely know him, but not at all well. They didn't know who his parents were or whereabouts he lived.
07:34 Geraldine rang around but could find nothing. Anna had now been gone hours.
07:39 Patrick and Geraldine visited a friend of theirs, John Cribben, who was a retired detective, who could advise them on what to do.
07:46 He told them to go straight to the Garda.
07:49 The parents went to Leekslip Garda Station, where Geraldine explained that it was highly unusual for Anna to not get in touch with B,
07:56 but for the Garda, there was no reason to be immediately concerned.
08:00 The first job of the investigators was to find out who Boy B was.
08:04 They found his address on their computer system and headed over to his house.
08:08 Garda connor Muldoon asked the boy about the day's events.
08:11 He said that he had called for Anna and the pair had walked over to the park, but he had left her there at 5.40pm.
08:17 The following day, the search for Anna continued.
08:23 Her parents, joined by family and friends, combed the local area on foot,
08:27 speaking to anybody they could think of who may have known where their daughter was or where she could have gone.
08:33 A family liaison officer had been appointed to support Anna's devastated family and help them through the investigation.
08:41 Anna's parents gave them photos of her, including her wearing the black and white hoodie.
08:46 On 15th May in the late afternoon, a press release was issued, requesting the help of the public.
08:55 Garda are seeking the public's help in tracing 14-year-old Anastasia Creasel,
09:00 who was last seen at her home in Leekslip, County Kildare, at 5pm on Monday 14th May 2018.
09:08 Anastasia is described as 5ft 8, black shoulder-length hair, sallow skin and slim build.
09:14 Sergeant John Dunn had the task of going back to Boy B's house to ask him more questions.
09:23 This time, the boy explained that he had called for Anna on behalf of another boy, his friend,
09:28 who will be referred to throughout the rest of this episode as Boy A.
09:32 Anna had a crush on Boy A, but he wasn't interested in her.
09:35 He said they had walked to the park where he had left her with Boy A, before returning home to do his homework.
09:41 Sergeant Dunn decided to take him back to the park.
09:45 He showed the officers where they had entered the park and where he had left.
09:49 The Garda marked all of these locations using the GPS on his radio before he took the boy home.
09:55 As Dunn was walking back, he was stopped by a man and his son.
09:59 The man had heard about Anna going missing and suggested the Garda check the back of the local sewage treatment plant,
10:05 as teenagers tended to hang around there.
10:08 Later that day he realised this was the father of Boy A, and the boy with him was Boy A.
10:15 The statements of the boys were incredibly important to investigators.
10:20 Officers had no reason to believe that Anna had been hurt,
10:23 and as the boys were the last ones to see her, any information they could give them was vital.
10:29 On Tuesday afternoon, both boys were brought back to the park.
10:33 They led the way, with Dunn, Sergeant Hussey and Boy A's father following behind.
10:39 As they walked, Dunn noticed Boy B was leading them on a different route from the one he had shown them earlier.
10:45 The boys came to a stop on the path near the BMX track.
10:50 Dunn and Hussey both saw them exchange what they would later describe as a glance or look.
10:55 The decision was made that formal statements needed to be taken, so they could clarify their exact movements.
11:01 Boy A and Boy B were taken to Lukan Garda station with their parents.
11:05 Boy B was sticking to his story.
11:08 He said that the first indication he had that anything had been wrong
11:11 was when the Gardi had been at his front door the day before.
11:14 "I have no clue what happened to her," he said.
11:17 The statement Boy A gave was detailed.
11:20 He explained that Boy B was one of his best friends.
11:23 Boy B had called by his house after school as Boy A was doing his chores.
11:27 They arranged to meet in the park later, and when Boy B arrived, Anna was with him.
11:32 Boy A said he knew her from school, but not that well.
11:36 He said, "At one stage, Anna said to me, 'I have something to ask you.
11:40 I was wondering if you wanted to go out with me.'
11:43 I was surprised. It came out of nowhere.
11:46 I kind of knew she liked me, because she kind of asked me out before."
11:50 He explained that he wanted to tell her gently that he wasn't interested in going out with her.
11:55 "I said, 'I'm sorry, but I'm not interested.'
11:58 She didn't answer. She said nothing.
12:01 She walked off. She looked annoyed and sad at the same time."
12:05 By this point, Boy A said that his friend Boy B had left.
12:12 Boy A had notable injuries and was walking with a limp.
12:15 When he was asked about this, he claimed that he had walked on alone before being attacked by two males,
12:21 who grabbed him and pulled him to the ground before kicking him.
12:24 He said that the attack ended when he got to his feet and kicked one of them in the head,
12:28 causing both of them to run away from him.
12:31 Investigators were rather unsure about this story.
12:34 Whilst he did have injuries that were consistent with some kind of assault,
12:38 with his arm and leg being injured and his face being cut, his account seemed strange.
12:44 Especially with his assertions that he had kicked a grown man in the head and caused both of them to flee.
12:50 Despite their concerns, Gardie were assigned to investigate his claim of being attacked.
12:54 Boy A was taken to the Garda headquarters in Phoenix Park, Dublin,
12:58 where a photo fit of the man he claimed had brutally attacked him was put together based on his descriptions.
13:04 When the witnesses who were there in the park that day were spoken to,
13:07 not one of them had seen anybody in or around the area that matched the photo fit.
13:12 Nobody on the CCTV footage bore any resemblance to them either.
13:17 As the following day rolled around Wednesday 16th May, the search continued to gain momentum.
13:25 There were now serious concerns that Anna had come to significant harm, or even been killed.
13:31 Assigned to the lead investigation was Inspector Mark O'Neill of the Luke and Garda station.
13:36 All members who were coming on duty in stations in both Kildare and North Dublin
13:40 were briefed about the ongoing investigation.
13:43 The decision was made to bring in a specialist search teams including a sub-aqua unit
13:48 who conducted searches of the River Liffey and other bodies of water.
13:52 The Garda Crime and Security Branch were tasked with analysing mobile phone data
13:56 to try and trace Anna's movements,
13:59 and the Civil Defence provided 60 people to help in the investigation.
14:05 Thursday 17th May 2018
14:10 A derelict 19th century farmhouse called Glenwood House
14:16 is located on the townland of Coldblow, west of Lewkin.
14:20 Built in around 1800 it sits on just over 100 acres of farmland on the edge of St Catharines Park.
14:26 It was inhabited up until the 1990s before it was left abandoned.
14:31 By the summer of 2018 the house was effectively in ruin.
14:36 It was a popular spot with teenagers who wanted to smoke and drink,
14:40 and parts of the house had been gutted by a fire and the roof had collapsed in several places.
14:45 That morning Sergeant Declan Burchill and his specially trained four-person team
14:50 were deployed to search the areas that included Glenwood House and a portion of St Catharines Park.
14:56 After searching hedgerows and ditches and using maps and the methodical grid system,
15:02 they made it to Glenwood House.
15:04 Inside the house was dark.
15:06 The windows were boarded up and little bits of light peeped through a hole in the planks of wood
15:11 that had been put over the glass.
15:13 White said he smelled dried blood, and through the darkness
15:17 he could see what appeared to be a mannequin of some sort.
15:21 He called out into the darkness but was met with silence.
15:25 As he had been trained he stepped into the room, confirmed what he'd seen,
15:29 before leaving to call for the assistance of his colleagues.
15:33 Upon hearing White shout 'Find!' indicating he had found something of significance,
15:39 Burchill ran into the house.
15:41 As the search team later headed into room one to confirm what White thought he had seen,
15:46 a horrifying discovery was made.
15:49 A naked body wearing only black socks was discovered.
15:54 They had found the body of Anna Creasel.
15:58 Her face was covered by her hair as if she had been thrashing it around.
16:03 Scattered about the room of the abandoned building were pieces of her iPhone
16:07 and items of her clothing.
16:10 Near the body was a large stick and also a cement block that had bloodstains on them.
16:16 The cement block also had knotted hair on it.
16:20 Blood was on the walls and the carpet.
16:24 After sealing off the crime scene, the search team awaited the arrival of Inspector John Gordon
16:29 from the Lukan Garda station.
16:31 A local doctor was called to formally pronounce the death.
16:35 Within an hour, Anna's family were told that her body had been found
16:39 and that they would have to go to the morgue to formally identify her.
16:44 The missing persons case was now a major murder inquiry.
16:50 It was the job of the state pathologist, Professor Marie Cassidy,
16:53 to oversee the transport of Anna's body via a hearse to the state laboratory in Whitehall in North Dublin
16:59 in order for a full autopsy to be carried out that evening.
17:03 The number of injuries that Anna had sustained was horrifying.
17:08 There were 50 different injury sites and listing where they all were
17:12 took Professor Cassidy 40 minutes.
17:16 The most serious injuries were to her neck, face and head
17:20 and lacerations and bruises covered her entire body.
17:23 She had died as a result of blunt force trauma.
17:27 Following the pathology and forensic evidence, the Garda suspected that the stick had been used
17:31 to beat her to the ground shortly after she had entered the room.
17:34 They then suspected that she had been hit four times with a heavy object,
17:38 such as the cement block that had been found.
17:42 Blue building tape was found around her neck, which she had three fingers inside of,
17:50 appearing as if she had been trying to get it off.
17:53 Although Professor Cassidy said there was evidence of compression to her neck,
17:57 it didn't appear that this had been caused by the tape.
18:00 There was also evidence that there had been penetration or attempted penetration,
18:04 but Professor Cassidy could not determine what had been used to do this.
18:08 She was also unable to determine whether or not Anna had been conscious at the time.
18:13 After being beaten, it's believed that she was dragged over towards the window,
18:17 where the small amount of light was able to get through.
18:20 It was likely here that the sexual assault was carried out.
18:23 As her false nails were scattered around the room, this indicated that she had fought her attacker
18:27 with absolutely everything she had.
18:30 They also believe that it was likely that she knew her killer.
18:34 Inspector John Gordon gave a statement.
18:38 We are appealing to anybody who was here in St. Clathrain's Park
18:42 from 5pm onwards our at D'Airdhout or on the Clonney Road
18:46 on Monday 14th May to contact the Garda Incident Room at Lueken Garda Station
18:52 at 01 666 7300, the Garda Confidential Telephone Line at 01,
18:58 or beg your pardon, 1800 666 1,
19:01 or indeed if they contact any Garda Station to pass on any information that they may have.
19:06 We are in particular interested in people who may have been on the Clonney Road or here,
19:10 who may have had dash cam footage, or who may have just witnessed Anna in the park,
19:15 or any information that they have in relation to this. Thank you.
19:18 Do you have any idea how Anna got from this point to this youth farmhouse,
19:22 which is at least a kilometre away?
19:24 At this time, we're following a number of lines of inquiry.
19:27 We have not established any actual fact in that.
19:30 There are a number of routes from here to the house,
19:32 which is why we're extending out onto the Clonney Road as well.
19:35 How are her family?
19:37 As you can imagine, at this time, they are receiving a lot of support from their children,
19:41 but they are extremely stressed.
19:43 This news left the community shattered.
19:48 People began leaving flowers in tribute to Anna,
19:51 shocked that a crime this brutal could happen.
19:54 In spite of the huge amount of forensic evidence that had been found at the scene,
19:58 none of it pointed immediately towards a suspect,
20:01 as all the fingerprints and blood belonged to Anna.
20:04 But this wouldn't last long.
20:06 At the Forensic Science Ireland lab, scientists had a breakthrough.
20:10 Analysis of her top showed semen stains.
20:13 A few days later, scientists reported that Anna's blood had been found on a pair of boots
20:18 that had belonged to Boy A.
20:21 His shoes had been taken away as part of the investigation into the alleged attack committed by two men.
20:27 The blood pattern on the boots led the expert examining them
20:30 to believe that Boy A had either been in close proximity when Anna was attacked,
20:34 or he had attacked her himself.
20:37 Those investigating already had reason to suspect Boy A and Boy B.
20:48 Their discrepancies and inconsistencies in the stories they had told set off alarm bells with investigators.
20:54 Now they had the forensic evidence that linked at least one of them to the scene of the crime.
21:00 Both boys were from respectable backgrounds,
21:03 and there was no history of disturbing behaviour or difficulty in school,
21:07 as one may expect to find in young offenders,
21:10 especially ones who commit serious offences.
21:13 Boy A's phone had also been taken away for analysis as part of the alleged assault investigation.
21:20 What was found on it only pointed the finger further in his direction.
21:24 A screenshot of a list of YouTube videos was found that included
21:28 "15 most gruesome torture methods in history",
21:31 "horror films that will blow everything away", and
21:34 "Until Dawn - get Jessica's clothes off".
21:37 Until Dawn appeared to be a reference to a popular horror video game.
21:41 Also found was a widely shared short story,
21:44 focused around a teenage boy who murders his family, called Jeff the Killer.
21:49 Whilst this could have been explained away as simply a fascination with the dark and macabre,
21:54 another find on the phone did little to dampen their suspicions.
21:58 A search had been made for "abandoned places in Lucan".
22:03 On the evening of 23rd May,
22:08 the parents of Boy A and the parents of Boy B were told that a warrant had been issued for their arrests,
22:14 and they would be required to bring them into the station the following morning.
22:17 Officers did not tell them that immediately after their arrests,
22:21 thorough searches of both homes would be conducted,
22:24 and what officers would find in these searches would be utterly horrifying.
22:29 [Music]