Body of Deirdre Jacob must be found before anyone is convicted of her murder

Anyone who knows anything about Ms Jacob's disappearance is urged to contact gardaí

A retired cold case detective has said that the body of Deirdre Jacob, who went missing aged 18 in Kildare this day 24 years ago, must be located before anyone can be convicted for her murder.

Ms Jacob disappeared as she was walking home in Newbridge, Co Kildare on July 28, 1998, with it believed she was murdered.

While rapist and attempted murderer Larry Murphy has long been a murder suspect, it was recently decided by the DPP that gardaí didn't have enough evidence to charge him.

However, Mr Murphy remains a major person of interest according to  Alan Bailey, who was the lead detective in the Garda Cold Case Unit before his retirement.

Mr Bailey told Newstalk this morning that this is "based on his modus operandi when he was involved in the abduction, rape and attempted murder of another female in the Year 2000".

Mr Bailey added that Ms Jacob's body would need to be found to solve the case, saying: “It is very difficult to prove somebody has been murdered if you don’t have the body to say, well this is the body of so and so.

“If the body is located tomorrow morning, I have no doubt it will be carefully examined."

Mr Bailey said that "with all the advances in DNA investigation and things like that, there is the possibility of locating some bit of evidence on the body or at the body dump scene which might help secure a conviction.” 

Garda inspector John Fitzgrald holds a media briefing at a search a wooded area of Brewel East, on the Kildare/Wicklow border in 2021 for the remains of Deirdre Jacob.

Anyone who knows anything about Ms Jacob's disappearance is urged to contact gardaí, no matter how minor the information may seem.

“It is a difficult thing to live with, taking a life, but it is also difficult to live with the knowledge of what happened and the knowledge that there is a family still grieving and still looking for answers and that all it would take is maybe a phone call," said Mr Bailey.

“It might be time for that person that they pick up the phone and say this is what happened. Deirdre would be 43 years of age this October,” he added.

“It has been a long, long time for her family, and they have lost an awful lot of milestones in the meantime with losing Deirdre.”