Gardaí still probe case of woman last seen 12 years ago

GARDAÍ say they are still actively probing the disappearance of a 22 year-old woman who was last seen 12 years ago today.

Imelda Keenan is missing since January 3, 1994. She was originally from Mountmellick, Co Laois, but had been staying in rented accommodation at Lombard Street, Waterford, at the time she went missing.

Gardaí in Waterford say they were in contact with the Keenan family only recently when new information which came to light was acted upon. But nothing concrete came out of their latest probe, a senior investigating officer confirmed last night.

Imelda Keenan is described as 5’3” tall, of thin build, with long brown hair and blue eyes. She went missing from Waterford four months before Annie McCarrick and a year and ten months before Jo Jo Dullard’s mystery disappearance.

Last night, a family member said they would be remembering Imelda today in a special way. “We remember Imelda every day. We pray for her every single day. It gets no easier with the passing of time.

“We believe someone knows something about her disappearance and would appeal to them to come forward,” she added.

Just last September, gardaí investigated a graveyard site in Ballylinan following information that had come to light about a possible, undocumented burial in an old grave in the village. But the search was futile.

Gardaí had been told that the body of a woman had been buried in a grave which was freshly opened in preparation for a funeral. That body was supposed to have been deposited in the open grave on the eve of a local man’s funeral.

But only the bodies of those reported buried in the grave were uncovered following a multiple exhumation at the site.

The hopes of the Keenan family and those of other missing women had been raised for a while.

Over the past 12 years there have been 19 false alarms sightings of their missing family member.

*Anyone who may have information is asked to contact the Waterford Garda Station at 051- 874888, or the Missing Persons Bureau at Garda Headquarters, 01-6662615 or [e-mail].

She hung up the phone - it was the last time she was heard of

Josephine Dullard was hitchhiking from Dublin to her home in Callan on November 9, 1995. She got a CIE bus which she thought was going to leave her in Kilkenny but the service terminated at Naas. She ended up hitchhiking and hitched several rides until she got to the town of Moone, which was 40 miles from her home. She called a friend from a phone booth at 11:37pm that night informing her of what had happened and said she might try to get to the town of Carlow which was within 10 miles because she had a friend who might put her up for the night. She told her friend that a lift had just pulled up and she hung up the phone. That was the last time she was heard of.

Antoinette Smith, 27, from Kilmahudderick, Dublin was last seen alive at 3.30am on July 11, 1987 on Westmoreland Street in Dublin’s city centre. The mother of two had just attended a David Bowie concert at Slane Castle in Meath. On April 3 the following year her remains were found in a shallow grave in the Dublin Mountains. She had been strangled.

THE Crime stoppers campaign also features the cases of five women who have gone missing in recent years, including:

Claire Boylan, 36, from Terenure, Dublin, was last seen on Sunday, March 2, 2003. She is described as being 1.62m in height, of thin build with a pale complexion. She has short curly brown hair.

Ciara Breen, 18, has been missing from her home in Bachelors Walk, Dundalk, Co Louth, since the early hours of Thursday, February 13, 1997. She is described as being 1.65m tall, with dark brown hair.

Annie McCarrick, an American woman, has been missing from her home in Sandymount, Dublin, since March 26, 1993. On that day she left her house to go walking in Enniskerry. She is described as being 1.72m tall.