The location where Trevor Deely went missing

Trevor Deely's route

This aerial image shows the route that Deely took in the early hours of December 8th, 2000.

He left Buck Whaley's nightclub at around 3.25 a.m. and then walked to his workplace, which was just around the corner.

The CCTV footage shows that an unidentified man was standing outside of the building at the time and that Deely had a brief conversation with him.

Shortly after 4 a.m., Deely left his workplace and began walking east along Wilton Terrace.

The last known sighting of the 22-year-old occurred at 4.14 a.m., when a surveillance camera captured him walking up Haddington Road with an umbrella.

Unidentified man

Image source: James Lawlor

This comparison photo was created by James Lawlor. It shows the exact spot where the unidentified man was standing when Deely arrived at his workplace on Wilton Terrace.

The man had been standing outside the building since 3 a.m.

Gate

Image source: James Lawlor

The "man in black" stood beside the 22-year-old while he was attempting to open this gate.

Judging by the CCTV footage, the pair talked for about 20 seconds.

Following what seemed to be a quick conversation, it appears as though the man stood against the gate with his head down.

When Deely finally went inside, this "person of interest" stayed in the same spot for at least 11 seconds (it may have been longer, as the released CCTV footage cuts off before he leaves).

There doesn't seem to be any indication that Deely mentioned this interaction to the security guard who let him in or to his coworker inside the building. Therefore, it stands to reason that he didn't find it particularly strange or threatening.

Of course, it is possible that he did say something and that the gardai are withholding that information for investigative purposes.

Timeline

This Google Street View of Trevor Deely's former workplace was taken in September of 2021.

The events, according to the CCTV timestamps:

03:34:17: Deely passes the man in black at Point 1. However, they don't seem to talk to one another. Judging by the footage, the IT worker is talking on the phone. For the next 17 seconds, the man continues to stand there.

03:34:34: It appears as though the "man in black" hears something. At that point, he turns around and walks over to the gate (Point 2).

03:34:43: The man appears at the gate. Notably, Deely hasn't appeared yet, even though we saw him walk past "Point 1" 23 seconds earlier. This suggests that he stopped somewhere between "Point 1" and "Point 2".

03:35:01: Deely finally arrives at the gate. Judging by the timestamps, he stopped somewhere between Point 1 and Point 2 for 44 seconds.

03:35:07: While he is attempting to open the gate, the man in black stands beside him. During this timeframe, it appears as though they had a brief conversation.

03:35:31: Deely is still at the gate. At this point, it seems as though the other man's head slumps over to his right—almost as if he is finding it difficult to keep it up. This might indicate that he is under the influence of something. For the next 20 seconds, the man stands beside Deely with his head down and his back against the gate. Judging by their body language, they don't appear to be talking to each other.

03:35:52: The gate finally opens, and Deely goes inside. It takes the man exactly three seconds to turn around and realize that the gate has been opened. By the time he turns around, it has already been closed. This sluggishness strengthens the theory that he was under the influence.

04:02:19: 27 minutes later, Deely exits the gate and fixes his jacket. He then walks over to the wall on his right. After opening his umbrella, he turns around and proceeds to walk east along Wilton Terrace. By this stage, it appears as though the man in black has disappeared.

Coordinates: 53.332523, -6.252236

Google Maps Link

He looks to his right

In the CCTV footage, he stands near the top of the lane and spends 22 seconds opening his umbrella. He then walks off to the left.

Position

This Google Street View shows his approximate position in the previous CCTV still.

The red arrow is pointing in the direction that he originally came from after leaving Buck Whaley's. The blue arrow represents the direction that he walked in after leaving his workplace.

Deely walked along Wilton Terrace

At 4.03 a.m., Deely started walking east on Wilton Terrace. Three minutes into his journey, he used his Nokia 1610 to call his friend.

However, his friend was asleep at the time. As a result, the call went to his voicemail.

In the voicemail message, he said that everything was good and that he would see him tomorrow.

Notably, his Nokia has never been found.

Baggot Street Bridge

Once Deely reached Baggot Street, he crossed the bridge and then turned to his left, heading northeast on Haddington Road.

The red dot pinpoints the area where he was last captured on CCTV.

This was his last known location.

The man in black

Roughly 22 seconds after he walked past the CCTV camera, the "man in black" appeared.

This suggests that he may have been tailing the 22-year-old.

The man in question takes short, quick steps. His hands appear to be in his front jacket or hoodie pockets.

The average person walks at a pace of about 1.4 meters per second. If we take the 22-second "lag" into account, then it seems as though he was 10–20 meters behind Deely, depending on his speed.

When the CCTV footage is slowed down to match the timestamp, you can see that neither of the men appears to be walking too quickly. It takes Trevor 12 seconds to walk across a distance of about 3–4 meters.

This is supported by Google Maps data, which shows that the route in question takes about 7 minutes by foot. If the time on both camera systems was relatively in sync, then it means that the walk took him four minutes longer than it should have.

Notably, Deely seems to stagger to his left during the clip. Although he wasn't "blackout drunk," he would have been intoxicated at the time. It was also raining, which may have slowed him down even further.

Map

That night, it seems as though Deely intended on walking along this route towards his apartment building on Serpentine Avenue.

Sadly, he never made it that far.

His movements after he walked past the CCTV camera on Haddington Road remain a mystery.

The route that he chose is slightly longer than the quickest route back to his apartment.

However, we do know that he was a smoker, and there was a 24-hour shop on Bath Avenue, at the eastern end of Haddington Road (close to Slattery's D4 on the map above).

If he needed cigarettes, then it is very possible that he decided to walk over to this shop before traveling back to his apartment.

Smokers tend to smoke a lot more after they've consumed alcohol, to the point that they nearly become chain smokers. This is because their cravings increase.

Notably, he did not light up a cigarette after leaving his workplace. This might suggest that he was fresh out.

His choice to walk along Haddington Road may have also been influenced by something as simple as his own personal preference.

Because his phone reportedly remained active for a number of days, it seems unlikely that he fell into the canal or the River Dodder. Furthermore, his umbrella was never found. In the surveillance footage, we can see that it was open. If he did fall into a river, then it seems likely that the umbrella would have turned up at some point during the search.

Deely went missing four days before US President Bill Clinton was due to arrive in Ireland. Therefore, it is possible that it was swept up during the city-wide clean-up. In the days leading up to Clinton's visit, all large bins were cleared out for security purposes.

An umbrella on the street after a night of rain would not have raised too many eyebrows.

If he didn't fall into the water, then one has to wonder how a 6-foot-tall man managed to vanish from the middle of Dublin City without a trace.

If he did die at the hands of another person, then it is likely that his killer had enough privacy to make him disappear.

In other words, he probably didn't attack him on the side of a busy city street and then haul him off to a discreet location. That would have been an incredibly difficult feat to pull off without being spotted, even at that time of the morning (the CCTV footage shows that there was still a considerable amount of traffic in the area).

Moving dead weight is also physically taxing.

If the "man in black" was involved in Deely's death, then it is likely that he either chased the 22-year-old off-path to a secluded location or he managed to lure him back to another address. For example, the pair may have started talking, and he may have invited Deely back to his house for drinks.

Deely was drunk, and he was facing a 25-minute walk back to his apartment in the rain. Consequently, he may have been willing to accept such an invitation.

This doesn't seem to have been a well-planned crime, as the man in question appeared to be somewhat under the influence during the earlier footage.

Although he worked at a bank, he was a young, low-level IT worker who had no access to money or client information. In other words, he was not someone who held an influential position. The theory that he was the victim of a targeted operation seems outlandish, especially when you consider the time of night and the fact that he was allowed to walk into his workplace.

It seems plausible that Deely's death occurred during a robbery or an altercation at a private residence that spiraled out of control.

Sadly, suicide cannot be completely ruled out either. Families who have lived through such tragic circumstances will often point out that their loved one seemed normal and even cheerful in the days leading up to their suicide.