Gardai believe latest abduction may hold clues to string of disappearances

Gardai will try to determine this morning whether the abduction of a young woman in Naas, Co Kildare, early yesterday morning is linked to the previous disappearances of six women in the area. A senior Garda source said they had contacted gardai involved in Operation Trace, the special unit set up to investigate the possibility of any link between the disappearances of the six women.

The operation headquarters in Naas town is close to where the 23-year-old woman said she was bundled into a "black shiny" car yesterday at about 3.30 a.m. The woman, from the Curragh area, has told gardai she had gone to a phonebox to make a call after being dropped by a minibus at the central bus-stop in Naas after a party in Barberstown Castle outside Kildare.

It is believed friends asked her not to get off the bus because they feared for her safety.

Gardai from Naas will travel to Limerick this morning to interview the woman. Video footage from security cameras on the main street where the woman said she was abducted will also be examined.

A Garda source said the similarities between her apparent abduction and the disappearance of Kilkenny woman Ms Jo-Jo Dullard and Newbridge teenager Deirdre Jacob were "significant".

Almost six hours later and 112 miles away an elderly couple living at the end of a laneway at Ballycasey Cross, less than a mile outside Shannon town, answered the door to the woman. "She was very upset and very disorientated," a garda i said. She was taken to St John's Hospital, Limerick, for examination.

Gardai expect her to be released from hospital today. The woman has told them that the lone driver was a middle-aged man, wearing a business suit and driving what was described as "not your average family saloon". The car may have been a Mercedes and the driver spoke with a "posh" west of Ireland accent. Supt Gerry Kelly from Ennis, who is leading the western half of the investigation, said last night: "We're looking for anyone who might have seen the car at all-night filling stations or restaurants." The woman is 5 ft tall with reddish hair and was wearing a three-quarter length leather jacket. Chief Supt Sean Feely of Naas appealed to anyone who was in Naas town about 3.30 a.m. to contact gardai; also, people travelling the route between Naas and Shannon.