Woman who posted on Facebook hoping for return of missing man helped dump his body in quarry

Eoin Reynolds

A woman who posted on Facebook hoping for the safe return of a missing man when she had in fact helped dump his body in a quarry "like a piece of rubbish" has been told by the victim's mother that she is "pure evil".

Linda Ring told a sentencing hearing on Tuesday for Jane Corcoran (35) that her family has been "devastated" by the way in which her "witty and generous" son Stephen Ring was taken from them.

For almost two weeks while her son was missing, she said she lived with the dread of what might have happened and the hope that he might come home.

She said: "During those two weeks, the defendant knew where my son was, that he was not coming home to us, that he had been killed."

While the deceased's body lay in Carrigfoyle Quarry, "dumped like a piece of rubbish," Corcoran posted on Facebook saying she hoped he would return home safely to his family.

Ms Ring said: "As a mother herself, she cannot justify her actions to me, this court or her own children. She is pure evil."

She added: "I pray she will never find a day’s peace and for the rest of her days she will see my son’s face and be haunted by what she did."

Corcoran, with an address at Pairc na Dara, Clonard, Co Wexford, previously pleaded guilty to impeding the apprehension or prosecution of another individual, knowing or believing that person to have committed murder or another arrestable offence, by assisting in moving the remains of Stephen Ring from her home.

She also pleaded guilty to assisting the offender by telling falsehoods to gardaí.

Mr Justice Kerida Naidoo adjourned sentencing Corcoran until February 9th, next year.

Missing person

At the hearing, Detective Inspector Padhraic Roberts told prosecution counsel Sinead Gleeson BL that Linda Ring reported her son missing on October 17th, 2024.

10 days into their investigation, gardaí came to believe that Mr Ring was dead and focused their efforts on the Carrigfoyle Quarry.

On October 27th, before gardaí could find him, two children who were out fishing 'saw an image' in the water, which turned out to be Mr Ring's remains, the detective said.

State Pathologist Dr Sally Anne Collis examined the body at Waterford University Hospital and noted damage to the skin consistent with having been immersed in water.

The remains were partially decomposed, and some of the tissue had been eaten by fish.

Mr Ring's hands had been bound behind his back using half a tea towel, and gardaí discovered the other half of the tea towel in a washing machine in Corcoran's home.

The pathologist found the cause of death was application of external pressure to the neck, believed to be due to a choke hold, the detective said.

Det Gda Roberts said gardaí spoke to Jane Corcoran on October 17th, the day Mr Ring was reported missing, and twice more over the following ten days.

She told gardaí a number of inaccurate "stories", the detective said.

Social media posts

During that time, Corcoran put up social media posts apparently showing concern for the missing man and also searched online for "bodies found in Wexford" and "countries with no extradition".

Gardaí discovered that before Mr Ring's disappearance, Corcoran contacted other people looking for him.

There was a suggestion that Mr Ring owed money for drugs, the detective said.

After Mr Ring's remains were discovered, Corcoran was arrested and interviewed, but she told gardaí "a number of stories contrived to distance herself from the death of Stephen Ring," the detective said.

She claimed that Mr Ring had arrived at her home already injured and that she had tended to his wounds. She named a man who she claimed had caused Mr Ring's injuries.

Gardaí wasted hours trying to corroborate her statements, the detective said.

Detectives secured CCTV footage from a neighbour of Corcoran's, which Det Insp Roberts said showed Mr Ring arriving at her home at about 2 am on October 15th 2024.

At about 3.53 am, Corcoran reversed her car to her front door and helped to move Mr Ring's remains, wrapped in a blanket, to the boot of her car.

She then drove to the quarry where the remains were "dumped" in the water. Corcoran has one previous conviction for theft, and the maximum sentence she faces is ten years.

Michael Hourigan SC, defending, said his client offers an apology and understands that nothing she says can lessen the devastation suffered by the Ring family.

He said she did not want to offer excuses and accepts that she is responsible for a "significant amount of the devastation" suffered.

He said his client lived a normal life into adulthood, had a steady relationship and is a mother of two. However, her relationship broke down due to her addiction to drugs and alcohol. Mr Hourigan handed in a number of reports and certificates on behalf of his client.

Victim Impact Statement

Linda Ring told the court that Stephen was her firstborn. "He made me a mammy," she said, adding: "To say he was doted on and surrounded by love and support would be an understatement."

Growing up, he was a "typical chap in a small village" with a "glint of mischief in his eye and a smile that would light up a room". He was witty, and his laugh was infectious, she said, but he was happiest with a hurl in his hand. He was generous and would go out of his way to help his friends, she said.

10 months before his death, Stephen's father died, causing a downturn in his mental health that allowed "addiction to take over," she said.

Despite his issues, he remained close to his family, so when he disappeared on October 15th last year without calling or texting, they knew something was wrong.

"My family had to endure two weeks of fear. Fear he was out in the cold, wet darkness of the October night without his coat," she said.

One stormy, wet night, she recalls hoping that he was out of the rain and somewhere warm. "I had a sick feeling he was dead and in water," she said.

During that time, she said she suffered a "bottomless fear" as she hoped her "gut instinct that he was dead was wrong".

That hope was extinguished when gardaí told her they were looking for her son's body.

She said she is "riddled with regret" and rage that her last words with her son were said in anger. When she finally got to see his body, she couldn't hold his hand because of the damage done by the water.

"I am haunted by what I saw in the morgue," she said. "Photos don't bring me any comfort, only pain, as all I see is what I saw in that morgue."

She said her life is ruined and she will live with a sentence of grief until the day she dies.