Gardaí investigating the 1996 disappearance and suspected murder of Fiona Pender have finished a search operation in Co Laois.
The search, the second this week, began on Wednesday close to Clonaslee, Co Laois, in the Slieve Bloom mountains, and continued overnight into Thursday.
It follows an earlier search operation, at a location at Graigue, Killeigh, near Tullamore, Co Offaly, which finished on Tuesday evening.
The results of the searches are not being released for operational reasons. The Garda said the family have been updated.
Who is Michael Kelley, the man questioned over the murder of Michael Gaine?
Ireland’s extraordinary education revolution laid bare by two new reports
The Macron shove is not a sign of a very French love story, but something more disturbing
Ruby Eastwood: Why would anyone choose to live in a city as ridiculous as Dublin?
Ms Pender was last seen at her apartment on Church Street, Tullamore, in the early morning of August 23rd, 1996. At that time, she was 25 years old and was seven months pregnant.
Detectives have always believed she was murdered, and the case was upgraded from a missing person’s inquiry to a murder investigation on Monday following a review of investigation files and the uncovering of new information.
A search had previously been conducted in the Slieve Bloom mountains in 2008, but produced nothing of evidential value.
Though gardaí investigating the suspected murder believe Ms Pender’s remains were buried in the Laois-Offaly area, they have not ruled out the possibility that the body was moved at a later date and that evidence could be found at several sites.
In the years since her disappearance, gardaí have arrested and detained five people, spoken to more than 300 witnesses and compiled thousands of documents. Several search operations have also taken place, but not yet yielded concrete results.
Ms Pender was one of a number of women to disappear in the province of Leinster in the 1990s, but it is believed her case was not connected. A single suspect, who lived near Ms Pender and was known to her, has long been at the centre of gardaí’s suspicion.
Josephine Pender, Fiona’s mother, campaigned for years seeking the public’s help to find her daughter. She died in 2017 following a long illness. Fiona’s father Sean died by suicide in 2000, and her brother Mark died in a motorcycle collision in 1995.
Gardaí have updated the family on any developments and say investigations are continuing. In their statement, they appealed again for anyone with further information to get in contact.
