Gardaí make appeal for missing Ciara
Ciara Breen went missing from her home in Batchelors Walk, Dundalk, Co Louth, 11 years ago today.
The 18-year-old sneaked out of a window during the night and was never seen again. Her mother, Bernadette, believes her only child was killed. Her case has baffled gardaí and last year it was taken up by a special Garda unit under Operation Trace in a bid to trace a number of women who vanished in the 1990s.
Dundalk gardaí said yesterday every lead was being followed in the case.
“Her mother is in bits,” said local garda Ciaran Clarke.
On the evening of February 13, 1997, Ciara had been for dinner with her mother at a local Italian restaurant. Both went home afterwards and to bed. But Bernadette Breen woke during the night. When she checked on her daughter, the teenager had gone.
“She didn’t take any money or clothes, so obviously she was meeting someone,” said Gda Clarke.
A local man was later questioned about her disappearance but never charged.
Gardaí have followed up reported sightings of the Louth girl in places as far away as Birmingham and Spain. “We have followed every lead, every trace and nothing has come up.
“Somebody out there knows something and we’d just appeal to them at this stage to come forward.
“Even somebody who did meet her that night or somebody who did kill her, it is bound to be playing on somebody’s conscience... even if they were to write an anonymous letter, anything at all,” said the Dundalk garda.
When Ciara went missing, she was described as 5ft 5in tall, with long dark brown hair and blue eyes. She was wearing a black leather jacket, a pair of dark blue jeans, wine-coloured sweatshirt and a white T-shirt with a picture of her face superimposed on it.
She had problems with her front teeth, which were set to be fixed by a dentist. This might have been a way of recognising the teenager, her mother has said.
Crimestoppers, on 1800 250025, is offering €10,000 to anyone who can supply information that could lead to solving the young girl’s whereabouts.
* www.missing.ie
