Gardaí searching for the remains of missing woman Fiona Pender cleared a strip of woodland at the edge of a remote forest in the Sleive Bloom mountains in Co Laois.
The strip is about ten metres wide and runs parallel to a small car park where Garda intelligence has indicated Pender’s killer brought her body after abducting her in Tullamore Co Offaly, in August 1996.
The search started at first light and is going to be suspended at nightfall. It will resume on Tuesday.
Pender was seven months pregnant at the time of her disappearance. Gardaí believe she was murdered and her body buried.
The strip of woodland is in a hilly area about 2kms from the village of Rosenallis, which is about 7kms from Mountmellick.
The strip has been cleared of fallen branches and trees but gardaí are not breaking ground pending the deployment of a “cadaver dog”, which is trained to seek out human remains.
The dog is expected to be deployed in an area of about 200 square metres alongside the car park this afternoon.
Garda digging equipment is on site but it is not expected that any remains, if found, would be removed rom the site today.
Gardaí have a considerable amount of equipment on site as well as about 20 officers from a range of units including the Technical Bureau, Garda photographers, the dog unit, mappers and uniform site security.
They also have the services of a forensic osteologist (the science of determining the causes of human death) who is standing by.
Should remains be found, gardaí expect to call in State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy to undertake a preliminary investigation.
The area is a well-known beauty spot on the Green Road between Rosenallis and Glenbarrow waterfall.
A Garda Command and Control Unit and several Garda vans have taken up position beside the woods since Thursday last.
The site is a number of kilometres from a previous 2008 search for Fiona Pender in the Slieve Bloom mountains.
Anyone with information in relation to Pender’s disappearance can contact gardaí in Tullamore on 057-9327600 or at the Garda Confidential Line on 1800666 111.
