Dean Roche

The Missing

Darrell Brown

True Crime, Society & Culture, Documentary

4.3 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 8 January 2025

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode we tell the story of Dean Roche, whose unexplained disappearance in Kilkenny, Ireland, has haunted his friends and family for the better part of a decade.

Dean, 31, was very much at a crossroads in his life. He had a storied history of drug abuse and his habit had landed him in prison on several occasions but he very much wanted to turn things around. He had people in his life who depended on him, like his mother Geraldine and his son, Jamie but he was also his own worst enemy and frequently allowed himself to get into scenarios that made being someone they could rely on impossible.

This episode hears from Dean’s friend Damien. The pair grew up together and were very close in their teenage years. Circumstances however, eventually caused them to drift apart. Damien brings us through the bizarre circumstances of Dean’s disappearance and explains why a promise made to Dean’s mother on her deathbed, means he’ll never stop searching for his friend.

For more information on this case, and every episode from every series visit https://themissingpodcast.org

And to visit details of the most recent appeals - like the one you may have heard in this episode, please visit : https://missingpeople.org.uk/recent

If you or anyone you know is struggling with drug or alcohol addiction, you can find some useful information here: https://www.talktofrank.com/get-help/what-is-drug-and-alcohol-treatment-like

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The Missing is a What's The Story? Original

https://www.whatsthestorysounds.com/

The series is made with the support of two amazing charities, Missing People and Locate International

https://www.missingpeople.org.uk/

https://locate.international/

This episode was first produced in conjunction with Podimo

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	A word of warning before we begin.
0:03.4	This episode of The Missing features references to drugs as well as drug addiction.
0:08.8	If you or anyone you know is currently battling drug addiction us, can ebb and flow throughout our lives, like streams from a river.
0:35.6	You may lose touch with someone,
0:38.3	only for years down the line,
0:40.3	your paths will cross again.
0:43.3	Both of you now changed by time and experience.
0:48.3	Damien Hipwell first met Dean Roach when they were teenagers.
0:58.5	The pair quickly bonded over a mutual love of hip-hop.
1:04.0	As they grew older, as is often the way, they drifted apart.
1:13.1	When they reconnected years later, Damien found his childhood friend in the grip of a heroin addiction.
1:22.7	Dean was a shadow of his former self. Not long after their reunion, Dean vanished in mysterious circumstances after responding to a for sale ad about a car.
1:28.3	They had only recently reunited, but Damien was a loyal friend,
1:34.3	and he promised Dean's late mother he would find out the truth about what happened to her son.
1:42.3	Almost ten years later, and Damien has no intention of reneging on that vow.
1:50.3	I'm Pandora Sykes and you're listening to The Missing, a What's the Story Original podcast series
1:56.6	brought to you with the help of the charity's missing people and locate international.
2:02.2	They believe that all of the cases in this series
2:05.3	could still be solved.
2:08.7	This is The Missing, Dean Roach.
2:26.1	Dean and Damien first cross paths almost four decades ago as teenagers growing up in the south-east of Ireland. Dean lived in an area of Colcetti known as Hebron Park. I was just a young
2:31.3	lad at the time. I was 14 in 1984. I just bumped into a bunch of
	...

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