The distraught mother of the six-year-old abducted Cork girl whose body was found near that of her father in Clonmel yesterday told last night of her disbelief and horror on hearing the news.
Speaking at her home in Greenhills, Douglas, Cork, Ms Christine O'Sullivan said: "I cannot believe that I won't see my baby again, especially when we were so close to finding her.
"I thought I was going to be holding her in my arms this evening and cuddling her and telling her how much I missed her and telling her how hard I worked to try to find her.
"Everybody seems to be falling to pieces around me, but it doesn't seem to have sunk in for me. It's unreal, I'm going around in a daze. It's like this has happened to some other poor misfortunate mother. How could he not have been noticed or recognised in Clonmel after all the TV and paper appeals?
"He had grown a beard and used to go around with a baseball cap the whole time. We don't know yet how Deirdre had changed. I was just talking to Sgt Dave Treacy briefly, and then Supt Brian Calnan came over and he told me.
"I thought some day Deirdre would come home to me, and we would have a big party, and there'd be such excitement, and the champagne would be broken open, and there would be a happy ending.
"He never was right, but he did it very well, and everybody around him would say he was a fine decent character. Down in the school [where her husband, Chris Crowley (42), taught maths], that was the story most people in Fermoy had about him, that he was a quiet, hardworking, willing, salt-of-theearth, great guy. I'm not angry towards him, I'm just numb. I don't feel anything."
Ms O'Sullivan and her husband were separated, but their relationship remained cordial, and he regularly took his daughter out for the day. On December 4th, 1999, Mr Crowley called to the house in Greenhills at 10 a.m. to collect Deirdre. He was expected to return with the girl at 5 p.m. However, Ms O'Sullivan was never to see her daughter alive again.
Since the abduction she has appeared on the Would You Believe programme and the Late Late Show on RTE as well as on numerous radio programmes to appeal for Deirdre's safe return.
Gardai had followed the case closely, and Ms O'Sullivan had prepared a website giving details of her daughter's appearance when she was abducted and the circumstances of her disappearance.
The appeal was also extended to former secondary school pupils in Fermoy, where Mr Crowley taught for many years. Despite the appeals, however, no trace was ever found of him or his daughter.
Shortly after the abduction of the girl Mr Crowley's car was found abandoned outside the Talbot Hotel in Wexford. This led to fears that he might have taken the ferry to England.
At the time Sgt Brian Fitzgerald, of Douglas Garda station in Cork, said: "If a four-year-old girl was taken by a stranger, the whole country would be up in arms. But because it was her father, people don't seem to be as concerned. They say that the case is sad, but tend to think that she is safe with her father."
After the discovery of Mr Crowley's car in Wexford, Ms O'Sullivan expressed the hope that he might have just abandoned the car there without leaving the State.
She said at the time: "It's likely he would use self-catering accommodation, so I would ask everyone to please check who is staying in any apartment, flat or house. If there's anyone matching their description, please contact the Garda."
Ms O'Sullivan also accurately predicted that Mr Crowley would grow a beard and wear a baseball cap to disguise his usual appearance. She was worried, however, that because her daughter was only a toddler when last seen, her appearance might have changed substantially since December 1999.
In one radio appeal she said: "I have no idea where they've gone and I know in my heart that Deirdre will be missing her mammy by now and wondering where I am. She probably would have been excited at first, thinking they're just on a holiday, but I know she'll be getting very agitated not hearing from me all this time."
A number of sightings of the girl in both Ireland and Britain were reported in the months following her disappearance, but all attempts to locate her failed.
Relatives and friends gathered in Ms O'Sullivan's home in Cork yesterday evening to comfort her.
Ms O'Sullivan works as a computer technician at the Cork Institute of Technology.