The mother of missing teenager Ciara Breen (17) has died without ever getting her daughter's remains returned to her.
Tributes have been paid to Bernadette Breen by people who worked with her and by the senior gardaí who led the searches for Ciara, who was her only child.
Ciara left the terraced home she and her mother shared in Dundalk in February 1997 to meet someone. She never made it home.
On Thursday, retired detective inspector Pat Marry, who once led the investigation, said: “I would have loved to have been able to bring Ciara home to Bernadette so she could have buried her only child and to give Bernadette peace of mind.”
He said it was “very, very sad to hear of Bernadette’s death”.
It is nearly one year since the main suspect in her death – Liam Mullen – died of a suspected overdose while in Garda custody.
Murdered
Like gardaí, Bernadette believed her daughter had been murdered and her remains buried in Balmer’s Bog in Dundalk.
Extensive searches of it were carried out by gardaí in 2015 but it was discovered that more than 500 tonnes had been added to it over the years and they were unable to find anything.
Mr Marry said that he still believes there is at least one person who has information on what happened, and he appealed to anyone with information to come forward.
Tributes were also paid to Ms Breen by former friends andcolleagues at radio station Dundalk FM where she worked on a community employment scheme and later as a volunteer.
She died at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital Drogheda on Thursday and her funeral takes place in Dundalk on Saturday.