The mysterious disappearances of Deirdre Jacob and Jo Jo Dullard
The primary focus of the gardaí’s search is Deirdre Jacob (left) after evidence came to light of “suspicious activity” occurring on the site on the evening of her disappearance. However, Josephine ‘JoJo’ Dullard (right) was last seen at a location that was a 10-minute drive from the site currently being searched.
Known as the “vanishing triangle”, nothing has confounded the Irish public quite as much as the inexplicable disappearances of young women in the Leinster area in the 1990s.
Despite several high-profile searches by the gardaí, nobody has ever found definitive answers around what happened to the eight women who disappeared in the east of the country in that decade. Now, renewed attention has been put on the women, as gardaí begin a methodical search of a woodland area in Kildare.
The primary focus of the gardaí’s search is Deirdre Jacob after evidence came to light of “suspicious activity” occurring on the site on the evening of her disappearance.
However, while the search is primarily in relation to Deirdre’s case, the gardaí said they are bearing in mind that there are other women who disappeared around the same area. Josephine ‘JoJo’ Dullard was last seen at a location that was a 10-minute drive from the site currently being searched.
Deirdre disappeared near her home in Newbridge, Co. Kildare, on July 28, 1998.
She was 18 at the time of her disappearance and had just completed her first year at St Mary’s University in Twickenham, in the UK, where she was studying to become a teacher.
That afternoon, she went to the AIB on Main Street and got a bank draft which she then posted from the post office across the street.
She then went to visit her grandmother’s shop before walking home, which was a 25-minute walk from the town.
She was wearing a navy, v-neck t-shirt and dark-coloured jeans. She also had a black satchel bag with long shoulder straps and the word CAT in yellow letters printed on the front. The bag has never been found.
She was last seen at around 3pm within yards of the driveway to her parents’ house.
Retired Garda detective Alan Bailey, who investigated the disappearance, described Deirdre’s case as “most unusual”.
“She was seen standing at the gate and waved to a number of neighbours and friends that passed by on the road, a busy road leading into Newbridge, but no trace has been found ever since,” he told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.
In 2018, her case was upgraded from a missing person’s case to a murder investigation.
In nearby Moone in Co. Kildare, Jo Jo, went missing on November 9, 1995.
Jo Jo was born in Callan, Co. Kilkenny, on January 25, 1974, and was 21 years old when she went missing.
She left her home in Callan at 8.30am on the morning of her disappearance to travel by bus to Dublin. She met some friends in Bruxelles Pub on Harry Street, just off Grafton Street, and stayed with them for the afternoon.
Having missed the last bus home, she boarded a bus to Kildare instead and arrived in Naas at around 10.50pm.
Jo Jo then hitched two lifts from Naas to Moone, in Co. Kildare.
At 11.37pm, she called her friend from a phone box in Moone to explain that she missed her bus and was going to hitch her way home. She told her friend that a car had pulled up and offered her a lift. She was never heard from again.
Jo Jo's case has also been upgraded to a murder investigation.
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