Gardai investigating the disappearance of a Kildare woman, Ms Deirdre Jacob, have re-examined the files of at least seven other women who disappeared and are believed to have been murdered in the past two decades.
There are similarities between some of the disappearances, mainly that the women were last seen walking along or near busy rural roads.
This has prompted speculation that they might have fallen victim to a single male killer, but senior Garda sources close to the Jacob investigation say there is no evidence yet of any common factor.
Ms Jacob's case, and the fact that previous cases are being re-examined, is one of the subjects to be discussed at the Garda Commissioner's biannual conference with his senior officers in the Garda College, Templemore, Co Tipperary, which starts today. There is no evidence as yet to show that Ms Jacob, a student teacher who was staying with her parents in Newbridge, has been killed. Her case is officially a missing-person investigation. She was last seen on July 28th after she had walked the mile or so into Newbridge to send a money order. She was seen walking back to her home.
It is believed Ms Jacob may have met someone. There has been no sign of her since, despite an intensive search of the area by gardai backed by soldiers from the nearby Curragh Camp. Ms Jacob is described as a conscientious, dependable person, who would be unlikely to go missing or fail to make contact with her family.
Her disappearance was reported to gardai by her parents, who quickly became concerned about their daughter. As soon as the case was reported, i took the case very seriously and the assistant commissioner in charge of the Eastern Garda Region, Mr Tony Hickey, detailed up to 30 detectives to Ms Jacob's case. As part of the investigation, detectives involved in other cases where women disappeared took part in conferences to see if there were any similarities in the cases. This is standard practice in such investigations.
The other cases which have been re-examined are: Ms Fiona Sinnott (19), of Lady's Island, Wexford, who disappeared after leaving a public house in south Wexford last February 8th and has not been seen since; Ms Ciara Breen (18), of Bachelor's Walk, Dundalk, who was last seen in the town on the evening of February 12th; Ms Fiona Pender (25), who was seven months pregnant when she went missing on August 23rd, 1996, from her home outside Tullamore, Co Offaly; Ms Jo Jo Dullard (21), who was last seen hitching a lift home to Callan, Co Kilkenny, on November 9th, 1995.
Ms Annie McCarrick (26), an American student, disappeared after apparently visiting the Wicklow mountains in March 1993; Ms Patricia Doherty (27), married with two children, disappeared from her home in Tallaght on Christmas Eve 1991. Her body was found six months later in a shallow grave near Kilakee, in the Dublin mountains.
Ms Phyllis Murphy (22) was last seen on December 22nd, 1979, after leaving a relative's home in Newbridge to return home to Kildare town. It is believed she missed the bus and was hitch-hiking home when she was abducted and murdered. Her body was found in a grave in the Wicklow Mountains in 1980.