A fresh appeal for information has been issued as the 30th anniversary of the disappearance and suspected murder of Fiona Pender was marked with a memorial gathering in Tullamore, Co Offaly.
Pender, 25, was last seen at about 6am on August 23, 1996, at her flat on Church Street in Tullamore. She was seven months pregnant when she disappeared.
Her body has never been recovered and nobody has been charged in connection with her disappearance or suspected murder.
People gathered in Tullamore on Sunday to remember Pender and her unborn child. The memorial was decorated with photographs, flowers, balloons and candles.
Family friend Brendan Killeavy said the community had come together to remember Pender and renew the appeal for information.
“Thirty years is a long time, but we feel that there’s people that have information that would resolve this,” he said.
Killeavy urged anyone with even seemingly insignificant information to contact gardaí, saying it could help investigators establish what happened to Pender and bring answers to her family and friends.
Gardaí have long believed Pender was murdered and had identified a chief suspect. Until last year, the investigation was formally treated as a missing persons case.
The suspect, who is from the midlands, has since emigrated from Ireland. Investigators believe Pender was murdered and that her body was buried, although extensive searches have failed to locate her remains.
Five people were arrested in connection with the case in 1997, but no charges were brought.
Pender’s mother, Josephine, spent decades campaigning for answers and repeatedly appealed for information about her daughter’s disappearance. Her father, Sean, died in 2000, while her brother Mark died in a motorcycle crash 14 months before Fiona disappeared.
Investigators carried out further searches in May last year, including operations in bogland at Killeigh in Co Offaly and in the Slieve Bloom Mountains near Clonaslee in Co Laois.
Gardaí said the investigation remains active and that thousands of documents and reports have been gathered. More than 300 statements have also been taken as investigators continue to pursue lines of inquiry.
Authorities have appealed to anyone with information who has not previously spoken to gardaí to come forward.
They have also asked people who previously provided information but believe they did not disclose everything they knew to contact investigators again.
Three decades after Pender vanished, her family, friends and the Tullamore community continue to hope that new information will finally reveal what happened to her and lead to the recovery of her remains.
