Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan has assigned a detective superintendent to investigate the case of missing Co Offaly woman Fiona Pender.
The 25-year-old hairdresser and part-time model was seven months pregnant when she disappeared from her flat at Church Street in Tullamore on August 22nd in 1996.
Her mother, Josephine Pender (63), has suffered ill health and insomnia ever since.
Ms Pender’s disappearance occurred just over a year after her 22-year-old brother Mark died in a motorcycle crash near Tullamore.
“My husband took his own life in 2000 because of the loss of his children. That’s the domino effect,” said Josephine Pender.
“You get some days and you can’t take any more. We need to find her, we need to find where she is and give her a Christian burial and my grandchild.”
With that aim in mind, Mrs Pender recently contacted the Garda Commissioner. “I wrote to the Commissioner Martin Callinan and he wrote me back a nice letter.”
Mrs Pender admits that even the best efforts of the Garda will be limited without the public’s assistance. She is once again appealing for information in relation to her daughter’s disappearance.