Mystery of teenage girls lost miles away from Galway home

Date Published: 05-Dec-2011

By Declan Tierney, Connacht Sentinel

Two teenage girls had an horrific experience when they went out socialising in Galway city . . . they ended up in Tuam wandering the streets in the early hours of the morning and not knowing where they were.

Fears have now been expressed that the 19 year old students had their drinks spiked in a city pub and then either hitched or were driven the 22 miles to Tuam where they happened to walk into a local hotel.

The County Clare natives ended up in Tuam with no mobile phones, no money while they were also missing their keys to their accommodation in Ballybane. They could not explain what had happened during the course of the night.

They were eventually returned to Galway by a generous taxi driver from Tuam who told the Sentinel that the young students were visibly shaken by what had happened but had not been physically assaulted.

“They told me that they had three drinks on Thursday night before heading into the city but after that they have no recollection of where they went to or how they ended up in Tuam.

“One of them had a vague memory of talking to a man with dark hair but apart from that they remembered nothing. The only conclusion I could come to was that their drinks were spiked during the course of the night,” the taxi driver, who didn’t wish to be named, added.

The students walked into the Ard Ri House Hotel in Tuam at around 5am on Friday morning and were met by a night porter. They thought they were still in Galway city and asked for directions to Ballybane.

Staff members at the hotel made them tea and tried to ascertain how they ended up in Tuam but the young women could not explain what had happened.

Read more in today’s Connacht Sentinel