Gardaí investigating the disappearance of Fiona Pender (25) in 1996 have formally upgraded the case to a murder investigation and have begun a search at bogland in Co Offaly.
The search is the third such operation, involving excavation, conducted by the investigation team in Tullamore in the 29 years since Ms Pender vanished while seven months pregnant.
Gardaí are searching and excavating land at Graigue near Killeigh village, Co Offaly. The operation is aimed at finding the remains of Ms Pender and is based on information received by investigators.
Plant machinery has been moved into the area and gardaí on Monday morning blocked public access to a boreen that leads to the search site. The Irish Aviation Authority has restricted the use of drones in the area for the duration of the search.
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The farmland being searched is about 15 minutes drive from Ms Pender’s native Tullamore, where she was last seen at her flat on Church Street early on the morning of Friday, August 23rd, 1996.
Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan said he had been briefed by the Garda about the case being upgraded from a missing persons inquiry to a murder investigation, and he encouraged anyone with information to come forward.
“Her family have gone through a terrible time for the past 28 years or so,” he said. “I think it’s incumbent on anyone who has information to bring it to the gardaí so this investigation can be concluded.”
A man from the midlands, who was known to Ms Pender, has been the chief suspect in the case from the time she vanished. In early 1997 five people, three women and two men, were arrested about Ms Pender’s disappearance, assumed murder, but were released without charge.
In 1996 vast tracts of land were searched and sections of Grand Canal were drained during the first wave of investigation in Co Offaly. However, no trace of Ms Pender, a hairdresser and part-time model, has been found and nobody has been charged.
In 2008 another search operation was carried out in woods near Mountrath, Co Laois, when a cross with Ms Pender’s name was found there. Six years later another search took place in the Slieve Bloom mountains, Co Laois, after a woman known to the suspect nominated it as potentially Ms Pender’s burial site, though nothing was found.
