Allen Leech Turns Detective in 'The Vanishing Triangle'

Sundance Now has picked up the upcoming true-crime thriller The Vanishing Triangle just in time for Spooky Season. The six-part mystery series stars Downton Abbey fan-favorite Allen Leech as DCI David Burke, one half of the fictionalized investigative team who will guide viewers on a journey through some of the most famous unsolved set of disappearances relating to Ireland's famous "Vanishing Triangle" area. Leech will be joined by India Mullen (Normal People) as investigative journalist Lisa Wallace, who is determined to find answers.

Ireland's so-called "Vanishing Triangle" was initially dubbed as such by the media in the mid-1990s as the number of reported disappearances of young women between 1993-1998 began to skyrocket along Ireland's eastern shore. The "triangle" mostly covers the Leinster area, with cases as far north as Dundalk (along the border of Ireland and Northern Ireland), as far south as Bridgetown on the Irish Sea coast, and coming to a point in Tullamore in the midlands region of County Offaly. These murders first caught national and then international attention in 1993, when American woman Annie McCarrick was reported missing, with eight more disappearances bearing the same hallmarks occurring at regular intervals through 1998.

Currently, twelve cases in all are linked to the "Vanishing Triangle," with three more disappearances prior to 1993 believed to be part of the overall scope, going as far back as 1987. The disappearances ceased in 1998 after the Gardia launched "Operation Trace," looking into violent men who "have shown serious sexual violence against women." Despite the manhunt, the killer (or multiple killers; the Gardia never confirmed this was the work of one person) has never been identified.