Mew lead in search for Josephine Dullard

GARDAI disclosed yesterday that there may have been another significant sighting of the Kilkenny woman, Ms Josephine (Jo Jo) Dullard, on the night she disappeared in November 1995.

The garda heading the investigation, Chief Supt Sean Feely, said that "about a month ago" a person had contacted them to say that early on Friday, November 10th, 1995, he had witnessed two men bundle a woman of Ms Dullard's description into a car at Milltown Cross, Kilmacow, three miles from Waterford city.

The location is about 60 miles from Castledermot, Co Kilkenny, where previous reports had indicated Ms Dullard was seen about an hour earlier.

Her sister, Ms Kathleen Bergin, last night described this development as "the most significant so far", and said the two men seen at Milltown Cross fitted the descriptions of two men with English accents seen earlier that night at a chip shop in Castledermot.

Ms Dullard had been travelling from Dublin to her home in Callan, Co Kilkenny, on the evening of November 9th, 1995, when she made a call to a friend from a public phone box at Moone, Co Kilkenny, at 11.37 p.m.

She interrupted the call to hitch a passing car. It stopped, and she told her friend she had a lift, before putting the phone down. There were reported sightings of her later in Castledermot.

This latest report of a sighting at Kilmacow is set at 1.25 a.m., on November 10th, 1995. The witness said he saw two men getting out of a red car, similar in type to the Ford Sierra Sapphire, with English number plates.

They bundled a woman who had got out of the car, and fitted the description of Ms Dullard, back into it.

Speaking on radio Kilkenny's Sue Nunn Programme yesterday, Chief Supt Feely said the gardai had been "probing" this latest development "for a while", but were now happy to run with it".

The Milltown Cross area had been searched for "the last three weeks," he said.

This latest report of a sighting will feature in a reconstruction of Ms Dullard's disappearance on the RTE Crimeline programme next Monday night.

Chief Supt Febly appealed to all owners of "B&Bs, guesthouses, mobile homes and chalets" in the area to check their registers for the names of two men who might have been driving a car with English number plates, during the period before and after Ms Dullard's disappearance.

Ms Bergin said last night the Dullard family continued to hope she was still alive.

"We have to know where she is, so we can bring her back," she said, "only then can we begin to live our lives fully. As it is, we are in a sort of Limbo."

When she disappeared, Ms Dullard was 21. She was 5ft 4ins, of medium build, with blue eyes, and jet black shoulder length hair. She was wearing a black cotton jacket, with a zip up the front, blue jeans, and black boots.

Gardai at the incident room in Blessington, Co Wicklow, would welcome any information which might help the investigation. They can be contacted at 0508 81468.