Ornaith Murphy, 55, of Oakland, California, was last seen on December 16, 2001. A native of Ireland and an experienced sailor who sometimes wrote for sailing magazines, she owned a 39-foot fiberglass sailboat called the Sola III, normally docked at Oakland Marina in Jack London Square. Surveillance footage shows the Sola III leaving the marina at 8:36 p.m. on December 15, 2001; the boat has never been found.

On December 16 Murphy spoke by phone from her boat with a niece and said she was at a marina in Berkeley but declined an invitation for breakfast. The vessel reportedly had about a week’s worth of food but lacked essential safety and foul-weather gear. Murphy was 5 feet 3 inches, about 150 pounds, with brown hair and blue eyes; she used a cane for arthritis and had broken both legs in a 1992 car accident. Her estranged husband, Kieran Murphy, disappeared a day earlier on December 15; both men went missing and the Sola III remains missing. There is speculation about what happened, but no evidence tying any theory to the facts.

Did anyone who sailed in the East Bay in December 2001 see the Sola III or remember Kieran or Ornaith in the days before they vanished?