In October 2013, two police officers came across a young girl near the General Post Office (GPO) in Dublin’s city centre. The girl seemed distressed. She was non-verbal but indicated with her fingers that she was 14 years old.
The girl didn’t have any identification on her. Or any money. Or even a bag. There was no indication of who she was, where she came from, or how she ended up in front of the GPO.
The officers took the girl to Temple Street Children’s Hospital. Soon, Detective Superintendent Dave Gallagher was assigned as the lead officer on the case. Upon meeting the girl for the first time, he noticed three things: she appeared to be around 14 to 19 years of age; she wore braces, and she was actively trying to conceal her identity from the officers by covering her face with her hair.
“She wasn’t in a ward with children, but in a private room,” he told the new podcast, Finding Samantha. “She seemed to be in good health, albeit a little thin for her age, emaciated. She appeared pleasant but didn’t communicate and didn’t want to speak. No eye contact. She kept the hair down over her face and she would recoil from any physical interactions.
It was unclear if something bad had happened to this girl. There may be a very rational reason behind not being willing to cooperate, or that could also be a sign of somebody very traumatised, or the victim of a very, very serious incident.”
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