Killarney Murder Suspect Was Fighting Asylum Rejection When He Flew to Istanbul, Irish Media Report

What's new

Since Irish media named the Jordanian national police want to question in the killing of American mother Jamey Carney and reported fears he had reached Jordan, new details have surfaced about his immigration status inside Ireland. According to the Irish Mirror, the man's asylum application had already been rejected. He was appealing that decision, which is why he remained in the country legally while the case moved through Ireland's system. It is unclear when his asylum application was refused or why it was denied.

The Irish Mirror reported he still had possession of his passport and used it to board a flight to Istanbul, Turkey, before Carney's body was discovered in her Killarney home on Tuesday. By that time, he had traveled roughly 200 miles by bus to Dublin Airport. This means his exit route ran through Turkey, not a direct flight to Jordan, complicating earlier assumptions about where he ended up. The Irish Mirror reported investigators now fear he may already have traveled onward to his home country of Jordan, which does not have an extradition treaty with Ireland.

Timeline of his time in Ireland

According to the Irish Mirror, the man arrived in Ireland in 2024 after first entering the United Kingdom and then crossing through Northern Ireland. He was housed in a state-run migrant shelter in Killarney while his asylum case was pending. The outlet reported he spent increasing time at Carney's home after the two became romantically involved. Carney's social media profiles described her as a "New Yorker in Ireland" and showed her with a man she identified as her partner, writing that they were a "mixed couple."

His social media accounts show posts from both the UK and Turkey in recent years, according to the Irish Mirror, suggesting a pattern of movement across those countries before he settled in County Kerry.

Police haven't confirmed any of it

An Garda Síochána, Ireland's national police force, has not publicly named the man or confirmed his immigration status. Fox News Digital asked both Irish police and the Department of Justice to confirm reports that he'd been refused asylum and was appealing. Neither agency responded to confirm the reporting.

Dublin City Councillor Gavin Pepper has criticized police for not releasing the man's photo publicly, arguing the delay gave him a significant head start before he left the country. Irish police have not explained their reasoning for withholding the image. Detectives issued alerts to airports, ports, train stations and bus stations within just over an hour of Carney's body being discovered, according to The Irish Independent, but by then the man had already left the country.

The fair counter-argument

Critics of Ireland's asylum system will point to this case as proof that a rejected claim doesn't mean removal. Someone can be formally refused asylum, appeal that refusal, and in the meantime live freely and travel on their own passport. That's a legitimate process question: if the system allows someone to hold onto a passport and leave the country during an active murder investigation, what does that say about how quickly Ireland's Department of Justice can act once a claim is denied?

But it's also true that an appeal is a legal right, not evidence of bad faith or a loophole being exploited. People awaiting appeal decisions in asylum systems across Europe and the U.S. routinely retain travel documents and freedom of movement unless a court or immigration authority specifically restricts them. Nothing in the reporting from the Irish Mirror or Fox News indicates Irish authorities had any legal basis to seize his passport or block his travel before Carney's body was found. No charges have been filed against him. He remains a "person of interest," not a formally accused suspect, and Irish police have not confirmed his current location. A law enforcement source told Fox News Digital the search is expected to be difficult given the head start he had before investigators were alerted to Carney's death.

What's unresolved

Whether he is currently in Turkey, Jordan, or elsewhere is not confirmed by Irish police or by the reporting so far. Whether Ireland has requested his return through Interpol or a bilateral channel with Turkish or Jordanian authorities has not been reported. And the central question from Councillor Pepper's criticism, why police didn't release an image sooner, remains unanswered by An Garda Síochána.