 Aisling Murphy was a 23-year-old woman from Ireland who just landed her dream job at a local primary school in Tullamore when she became caught up in a chilling true crime story. As she was out jogging one afternoon, Aisling was ambushed from behind. The suspect claimed her life within a matter of seconds and did so in broad daylight in front of multiple witnesses and CCTV cameras. The crime shook the entire country. But what could this criminal have wanted so badly that he was willing to take the life of such a young, promising school teacher? And what could have led him to commit such a heartbreaking crime in broad daylight, no less? Investigators think they know the answer, but it isn't pretty. Aisling Murphy was born in 1998 in Blue Ball, which is fairly close to Tullamore, where Aisling would spend the majority of her life. She grew up alongside her siblings, a brother and sister, and had a deep love for music. She was specifically fond of traditional Irish music, as was the rest of her family. She would often play music with her father, with Aisling playing the tin whistle of the fiddle while her father preferred the banjo. Aisling believed that everyone should learn how to play an instrument, and she did her best to pass on her love of music down to her students and her peers. She would often take younger musicians under her wing, teaching them all she knew about her instruments. Aisling would then meet the love of her life when she was about 13 or 14 years old. Now, I get that might sound a bit strange to some, but when you know, you know. My own wife was just 14 when we started dating. But when Aisling met her boyfriend, Ryan Casey, the two hit it off instantly. He was just 15 at the time, but regardless of their age, they started dating just weeks later, and from the very beginning, they knew it was meant to be. By 2014, though, they had called things off, admitting that they were probably too young to truly know what they wanted in life, but it didn't take them long to realize what they were missing out on. Because after a short while, Ryan asked Aisling to make things official, gifting her a watch that she virtually never took off since the day that it was given to her. It wasn't the world's prettiest watch by any means, but it was the most special thing that Aisling owned, and by a steep margin. Unfortunately, Aisling wouldn't be around long enough for the two to get married, even though they both obviously wanted to. But they stuck together throughout the remainder of high school, college, and after graduation. They would actually remain together for the rest of Aisling's life. Once she graduated from high school, Aisling went on to attend the Mary Immaculate College in Limerick, getting her Bachelor's of Education in 2021, when she was just 22 years old. When Aisling left school and began placing applications at nearby primary schools, she was contacted by Duro National School, who was more than happy to offer a position teaching first grade. For Aisling, this was the job of a lifetime. She was able to make a living doing what she always dreamed of doing, so it's easy to assume that for her, life couldn't have been better. But as we all know, good times don't always last forever. Aisling wasn't one to let her health go by the wayside after she finished up school, so she always made time to ensure that she ate properly and got regular exercise. So on January 12th, 2022, Aisling headed out for a jog, as she did quite often. She was jogging along the Grand Canal, located in Tullamore. She had just finished up work at school and was hoping to get some fresh air before returning home for the evening. She left school just after 3 p.m. that day and made her way towards a walkway known as Fiona's Way, which was oddly enough named after a missing woman, Fiona Pender. As Aisling made her way down the path, tragedy struck, what should have been an ordinary January afternoon, quickly turned into a nightmare. As Aisling made her way along Fiona's Way, she was ambushed from behind. A male suspect who was not immediately identified had pulled out a weapon and charged at Aisling from behind. She was disdain a total of 11 wounds, all of which were to her neck. What's crazy is that this was an otherwise beautiful day. It was broad daylight, no rain in the forecast, the perfect day to go out for a nice jog, and Aisling clearly agreed. So why had this suspect chosen this day of all days to commit such a heartbreaking crime? Naturally, many other people were out and about walking along the canal near to Aisling. It goes without saying that there were multiple witnesses to the crime. Two women who were jogging along the opposite side of the canal were the first to realize what was taking place. And mere seconds after Aisling fell down, the two women bolted and headed towards the nearest home to ask the residents to call the police. When investigators finally arrived at the scene of the crime, it was incredibly clear what had taken place here. Aisling had lost her life within a matter of seconds, but the aftermath left an image in the minds of locals that is likely to persist for many years to come. As police collected evidence from the scene of the crime, they initially believed that Aisling had lost her life after being asphyxiated. After all, the women who'd witnessed the crime were so shaken that they couldn't quite tell what specifically it unfolded. They just knew that a man had grabbed Aisling from behind. But as police began to investigate the situation a bit more closely, they realized the sheer brutality of the crime. Police had also initially believed that Aisling had used the keys that she was carrying to fight back against her attacker, but they would later learn that this too wasn't entirely accurate. As the crime was unfolding, Aisling immediately began defending herself by kicking at the man, as well as clawing him with her fingernails. And it was incredibly helpful that she did this because by doing so, she collected a perfect DNA sample of the suspect under her nails. But keep in mind, a DNA sample is only useful if the criminal is logged into a police database. In this scenario, he wasn't. Police honed in on one specific man based on the statements witnesses gave at the scene of the crime, as well as their belief that the criminal wasn't someone who Aisling knew personally. Descriptions of this individual eventually helped police track down a 40-year-old man who they believed was responsible. Some sources seem to suggest that this man was captured on CCTV in the area as well. But unfortunately though, the man was cleared of any involvement in less than 24 hours. When the man spoke with the Irish Independent a short while later, he described his time being detained by police and relayed his experience of being interrogated for a crime he didn't commit. To put it nicely, this man did not have a good time while he was in custody. Even after his release, he was bombarded by online threats from people who still believed he was behind the crime, even though it was proven that he wasn't. The man's life was in such danger that police were forced to provide him with a safe accommodation while the investigation continued because they feared he may have his life taken, simply because he was a suspect. It seemed that no amount of evidence could convince these armchair detectives otherwise. It was the very definition of a modern-day witch hunt. Interestingly, as police were still searching the scene of the crime for any clues, they came across a Falcon Storm mountain bike that they believed was tied to the case. They went back and started coming through hours upon hours of CCTV footage after learning that another woman claimed to have been followed by a man who rode an identical bike to the one that was found near the crime scene. Footage of a man riding this specific bike was eventually recovered, but it wasn't initially clear if police believed the man riding this bike was the perpetrator or merely a witness who fled the scene when the crime had unfolded. But considering the bike had been left behind at the scene of the crime and no one had bothered to come back for it, I'd say it's pretty safe to assume that detectives believe the bike likely belonged to the suspect. But around the same time, detectives were informed of another interesting clue and it came from somewhere no one would have anticipated. On January 14th, two days after the crime, a man stumbled into a local hospital seeking treatment for an injury that he'd sustained to his stomach. He refused to tell the nurses and doctors how he had been injured, which only made them more curious and suspicious. Some of the healthcare workers believed that the man may have been involved in something rather nefarious, so they called the police to inform them. Investigators then carried out a background check against the man. Now, we don't know specifically what this background check showed, but it clearly raised a few eyebrows because after receiving the results of the report, police decided to carry out searches of multiple nearby properties that the man was associated with, including one in County Offaly and one in Dublin. Two vehicles were seized as well and one of these vehicles is believed to have been the taxi that was used to transport the suspect to the hospital. Around the same time, it was reported by the local police commissioner that all of the police forces available resources were to be allocated to getting this case solved. Police announced around the same time that they were making significant progress in the case but that they were unable to share many of the specifics of their investigation as they feared it may tip off the suspect and cause him to flee or at the very least do a better job of covering his tracks. But then a breakthrough came and an arrest was finally made. Turns out it was the man who had admitted himself to the hospital on the 14th. He was released from the hospital after four days of observation being sent back into society on January 18th, the same day as a public vigil that was being held for Ashley. Less than 24 hours later, the man was arrested under suspicion of claiming Ashley's life. Less than 24 hours after this, the man was officially charged and identified as Joseph Pulska, a Slovakian national. Police quickly learned that the man didn't even know Ashley but he had been stalking her on the date of the crime. He was later taken before a special sitting of the Tullamore District Court at which point they agreed that there was enough evidence against the man and he was sent to Cloverhill Prison to await a second court appearance scheduled for the 26th of January, about a week later. At this same time, police arrested a second suspect who they also believed was involved in the crime but he was released without charges a little while later. It wouldn't be until April 25th that the man was officially given a court date. It seemed to nearly every member of the public the police had finally found their man but then a shocking turn of events. Joseph's trial began on October 2nd, 2023 following several more lengthy delays. During the trial, several key pieces of evidence were revealed that caused the public to seriously question the integrity of the local police. The most condemning piece of evidence that was put forward was that Joseph had actually confessed to the crime on January 14th, the same day he entered the hospital and he did this in the presence of police officers yet he wasn't arrested until the 19th, five full days after his confession. No explanation for this has ever been given. So why in the world did it take police nearly a week to arrest a man who had openly confessed to a crime? When police were digging deeper into the man's whereabouts at the time that the crime took place, they realized that he was in fact the man who they had spotted on CCTV footage riding the mountain bike that was mentioned a moment ago. Better yet, police were able to conclusively prove that he was the criminal because of the DNA that Ashling had collected underneath her fingernails. In essence, she'd helped to solve her own crime even after she lost her life. If this wasn't condemning enough, police were actually able to use data that was pulled from Ashling's Fitbit smartwatch to determine the exact second that the crime occurred. And Joseph's whereabouts fit perfectly in line with the timeline that they had now established, proving beyond any doubt that he was with Ashling when she lost her life. Around the same time that Joseph was spotted traveling through the Fiona's Way area, Ashling's Fitbit history showed a sudden and dramatic change in her heart rate, pinning down the exact moment that the crime occurred. But even with all of this information stacked against it, police still had one major problem. They had found no motive for the crime. In fact, Joseph had begun to blame the crime on a masked man who had jabbed him in the stomach around the same time that the crime against Ashling was carried out. In essence, he explained this Fitbit information away, claiming he was in the area at the time and he did witness the crime, but he wasn't the one who carried it out. This would have obviously been the reason he admitted himself to the hospital just two days after the crime. But what I can figure out is that Joseph had already confessed to the crime. He confessed in detail to police officers who visited him in the hospital months before the trial took place. So why the sudden change in his story? I guess he suddenly didn't want to go to prison? I mean, who even knows? To top this off, he shared various conflicting stories with other members of the investigative team, so who even knows what the truth is at this point? Police were eventually able to determine that the wound that Joseph had sustained to his stomach was self-inflicted and it had come about during the crime against Ashling. Needless to say, with the DNA, the confession, the Fitbit data, the dozens of scratch wounds all over his body and the stomach wounds stacked against him, Joseph was sent to prison for life. But this brings us right back to the bigger question here. What was the motive? The most obvious motive in many cases like this is that the suspect wanted to take advantage of the victim, but that didn't happen here. Ashling was never taken advantage of, nor was she even robbed. Joseph ran up behind her, jabbed her 11 times in the neck, then just ran away. There literally was no motive other than he wanted to do it. After the trial had concluded, police were willing to divulge some of the more heavily guarded secrets of the case. And they were finally willing to admit that Joseph had indeed confessed to the crime on January 14th with the help of a Slovakian interpreter who they had on the phone while Joseph was stuck in a hospital bed. They never opened up about why it took them an additional five days to arrest him, but I suppose that's largely irrelevant at this point. What's done is done. When Joseph spoke to the interpreter, he made it clear that he wanted his confession to be repeated word for word to investigators. In his statement, he admitted to claiming Ashling's life, repeating this twice, but interestingly, he says that he didn't do it intentionally, adding that he feels guilty and he's sorry. He admitted that he had never seen Ashling before and explained the situation away as some sort of accident. He said he'd been carrying a knife with him that he used to work on the chain of his bike. He said when Ashling passed by, he accidentally cut her. He said that she began to panic, then he began to panic. He said he never saw her there and that the crime was an accident, but how? How in the world do you accidentally jab someone in the neck 11 times than accidentally get yourself in the stomach as well? Well, you don't. With this logic, he must have accidentally been stalking the other woman as well and accidentally left his bike at the scene of the crime after he accidentally ran away and hid from the police for 48 hours, hiding the wound that he had accidentally sustained to his own stomach. I feel like Ashling's boyfriend said it best in this case. When he told this man, quote, you smirked, smiled, and even showed zero remorse during your trial, which sums you up as the person you really are, the epitome of pure evil. In the aftermath of this crime, a park bench located near to where the crime unfolded has been dedicated to Ashling with a simple inscription reading, in memory of Ashling Murphy. At least three music charities have been set up in her memory as well, providing scholarships to students based on their musical achievements. Ryan, Ashling's boyfriend, says that Ashling meant everything to him, and when her life was taken away, he lost his purpose. It's hard to imagine what you would do without someone who's literally been in your life since you were a child, someone you grew up alongside and dedicated the rest of your life to. If you remember, Ryan gave Ashling a special watch to commemorate their love for one another. But rather than having Ashling buried with the watch that she cherished more than anything, he opted to pass it on to Ashling's mother, who's vowed to wear it every day of her natural life until she's able to meet with Ashling again in the next one. Thank you guys for tuning in to another episode of True Crime Stories. If you enjoyed this video, check out this other interesting case I cover, and don't forget to subscribe. It's totally free and keeps you up to date with all of my future videos. But my name is Ty Nottz, and I'll catch you guys in the next video.