Gardaí to begin fresh dig for remains of Fiona Pender

Gardaí are to begin digging at a new site in the midlands for the remains of Offaly woman Fiona Pender, who has been missing, presumed murdered, since 1996.

Information has been received from a new witness following the arrest abroad of the chief suspect for the murder of Ms Pender. He has been charged with a crime unrelated to her disappearance, but the investigation of him abroad has yielded testimony that gardaí believe may help to resolve the case of the missing woman.

The case of Ms Pender (25) became one of the highest-profile investigations in the Republic in recent decades.

Since she disappeared the man suspected of killing her has spent time living outside the Republic, where he was recently accused of assaulting a woman. He was investigated for the alleged offence, charged and released on bail. Witness interviewed The police force that investigated him interviewed a witness who has supplied information about the suspect's time in Ireland. The information was passed to the Garda and a team of detectives was dispatched to interview the witness in the foreign jurisdiction.

On the basis of the statement the witness has given to the Garda, a new site of interest has been identified in the search for Ms Pender’s remains and will be excavated in the coming weeks.

The witness has also suggested to the Garda team that the suspect has mentioned Ms Pender in a way that gave rise to suspicion he had key information on her case.

The suspect, who is in his 40s, was in the midlands at the time Ms Pender disappeared. Gardaí always believed she was killed by somebody known to her and her remains hidden to conceal the crime.

While five people have been arrested and questioned in Ireland, no trace of the missing woman or her remains has been found, and nobody has been charged with any offence relating to the case.

Ms Pender, a part-time model and hairdresser, was last seen at the apartment where she lived with her partner at Church Street, Tullamore, Co Offaly, on the morning of August 23rd, 1996. She was seven months pregnant at the time and had bought clothes for her baby. She had shown no signs of planning to leave the area. Missing person inquiry Officially the case has remained a missing person inquiry but no evidence has emerged to suggest she is still alive.

In 1999 her case was included in a major Garda inquiry, Operation Trace, which was set up to investigate any links between Ms Pender's disappearance and the cases of other women who went missing in the Leinster area in the 1990s. That operation has never been formally closed but no link between any of the cases was ever found.

The missing women included Annie McCarrick, the American student last seen at Johnny Fox's pub in Glencullen, Co Wicklow, in March 1993; Josephine Dullard, who went missing after phoning a friend from Moone, Co Kildare, in November 1995; Ciara Breen, who disappeared from her Dundalk home in February 1997; Fiona Sinnott, who went missing from Bridgetown, Co Wexford, in February, 1998; and Deirdre Jacob, who was last seen on July 28th, 1998 outside Newbridge, Co Kildare.