You are listening to the mens rea podcast and this is the story of Rachel O'Reilly. Oh, oh, oh,th of October, 2004 started out just as any other morning had in the O'Reilly household.

Joe O'Reilly got out of bed and went to work as Rachel slept.

Soon Rachel too was up and getting their two little boys ready for their day in Cresham at school.

She dropped them off that morning, but she would never return to pick them up.

Joe O'Reilly Jr. was born to parents Joe Senior and Anne O'Reilly on the 6th of April 1972.

He was the second of four children with one brother and two sisters.

His parents had met at a city centre dance hall in Camden Street.

They were both from Drimna, a southside neighborhood close to Dublin City Center,

but they moved to Kilbaric, a working-class suburb in North County Dublin,

where the children went to the local secondary school.

Joe was the tallest of the four children and would eventually end up being six foot five. He took a leadership role in the family.

When he was sitting his final exams in school, his parents' marriage began to fall apart, though, and Joe's senior moved to England, maintaining contact with his children on the phone.

Joe Jr. would visit his father only once to introduce his fiance to him.

Rachel O'Reilly began life as Theresa Green in October of 1973.

Her mother was a 17 year old Dublin girl of the same name, and Rachel was given up for adoption

to the Callily family.

Her parents were Jim and Rose Callily and she became Rachel Callily.

She had joined a growing family of two boys and later Jim and Rose adopted another boy and another girl.

They lived in a working-class suburb on the north side of Dublin City.

Jim was a plumber and like many families in the 1980s they moved abroad to Australia. Rose didn't settle however and they soon returned home.

Jim was a keen cyclist and Rachel took after him, joining various sports clubs in her secondary school.

She played basketball and field hockey, took gymnastics, and went swimming.

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