No new leads from searches for bodies in midlands bogs

The series of searches in the midlands this week for the bodies of missing women has failed to produce any new leads, according to the Garda overseeing Operation Trace, Assistant Commissioner Tony Hickey.

No follow-up searches were planned and "nothing new has been thrown up", he said yesterday. He was speaking at the launch of a new poster information campaign, jointly run by the Garda and Dublin Corporation, which features two of the missing women.

Posters of Jo Jo Dullard (20), who disappeared in Co Kildare in 1995, and Annie McCarrick (26), the American student who disappeared in the south Dublin area in March 1993, will be displayed in a number of city-centre locations, using new street notice-boards.

Mr Hickey said "every time there is more publicity about the cases we get more information. It's never too late to appeal for information, as we have found in previous investigations. People have come forward often very late in the day because they thought what they knew wasn't important. But often something seemingly irrelevant can be critical."

He said gardai were "very sceptical" of the claims of a prisoner in Canada to some knowledge of the disappearances. Clifford Robert Olsen (59), a serial killer serving 11 life sentences, claimed he had letters and photographs from an accomplice in Dublin who had murdered five women.

After contact with the FBI and Canadian police, gardai discovered Olsen "has a history of contacting law enforcement agencies with such stories," Mr Hickey said, adding that other people had deliberately given misleading information, which had undermined the work of detectives.

The new noticeboards on which the posters of the missing women will be carried were designed by the Streetwise firm and are located at the busy pedestrian areas of O'Connell Street and Henry Street. They serve a dual purpose, acting as recycling bins for plastic bottles and drinks cans as well as public information displays.

In addition to missing-persons operations, they will be used in conjunction with road safety, crime prevention and drug education campaigns. While the project is initially limited to four locations in Dublin, there are plans to extend it to other towns and cities.

The city manager, Mr John Fitzgerald, said the initiative formed part of the corporation's £30 million rejuvenation plan for the O'Connell Street area. The investment was being backed by more than £200 million in private sector funds, he said.

Assistant Commissioner Jim McHugh said the efforts of the corporation and the Garda had helped to make the city centre a much better, safer and more enjoyable place to visit.