A sister of Kilkenny woman Jo Jo Dullard, who gardaí believe was murdered 30 years ago, has asked members of the public who have “information, no matter how small, to please come forward”.
The 21-year-old was last seen shortly before midnight on November 9th, 1995, in the village of Moone, Co Kildare, while attempting to make her way home to Callan, Co Kilkenny.
She had missed the last direct bus back to Kilkenny and had been hitching lifts from Naas, Co Kildare, to which she had managed to get a bus. The young woman was using a public phone in Moone when she told a friend, Mary Cullinane, that a car had stopped and she was going to get a lift. That was the last known sighting of her.
Ms Dullard was the youngest of five siblings. Her father, John, died before she was born, and her mother, Nora, died in 1983 from cancer. Her sister, Mary Phelan, died in 2018.
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In October 2020, gardaí upgraded the investigation into her disappearance to a murder inquiry.
For some three weeks in November and December 2024 a Garda excavation of land near Grangecon in Co Wicklow was searched in an effort to locate her body or any evidence to show she may have been there.
A man in his 50s was the first person arrested on suspicion of the murder of Ms Dullard 14 months ago, but he was released without charge.
A subsequent three-week-long large-scale search four years ago of the Usk Little woodland area on the Kildare/Wicklow boundary was investigated by gardaí after fresh information came to light.
Her sister Kathleen Bergin said in a post on the official Jo Jo Dullard missing person Facebook page: “Every piece of information is important. We pray for you to find the courage and strength to come forward and help JoJo.”
Ms Bergin thanked the public for their “wonderful support and kindness” over the years.
The support of the public means “so much” to them as they “see how much everyone wants to bring JoJo home and how we are not alone in this journey”.
Gardaí have said they are “resolute in their determination to find answers for her family”.
