Missing Jo Jo Dullard's sister: 'For anyone with information, it must be a burden to be holding this'

The 30th anniversary of Jo Jo Dullard's disappearance is on Sunday. 

A sister of Jo Jo Dullard is urging anyone with information about her disappearance “not to stay silent anymore” ahead of the 30th anniversary of her disappearance on Sunday.

Kathleen Bergin was speaking to the Irish Examiner ahead of a remembrance event in Kilkenny Castle on Sunday afternoon, at the monument for the missing. A prayer service will take place for Jo Jo, who would now be 51.

The 21-year-old was last heard from when she made a phone call to her friend, Mary Cullinan, from a phone box in Moone, Co Kildare, at 11.37pm on November 9, 1995. A plaque has been placed at the site by the family in memory of their sister, who was a native of Callan, Co Kilkenny.

Two days after her anniversary last year, a man was arrested and a large section of land was searched for the missing woman, but no trace was found. The man was subsequently released without charge.

Ms Bergin said the family had hoped that this year’s anniversary of her disappearance would be different because they would have had her remains found. However, she said that instead, “we are still here in the same situation”.

“All of us are there for her, and we won’t give up on her, and we are going to do everything we can to get Jo Jo home.” 

She appealed to anyone with information to come forward and help “bring her home”.

“She is out there long enough. It is a simple thing to put flowers on a grave, but we can’t do that.” 

Kathleen Bergin. File picture: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Ms Bergin said all the family want is to have her back to lay her to rest beside her parents.

“The fear is that we are all getting older, and for anyone with information, it must be a burden to be holding this. We don’t want them to pass away without telling us what they know,” Ms Bergin said.

“Information is there, somebody has it. We want them not to stay silent anymore.” 

She added: “[Jo Jo] was on her way home that night, with no one to help her. They can do that for her. It was a cold damp night, and she only wanted to get home, and somebody made that decision that she wasn’t going to. She would have been looking for help, and I can only imagine what was going through her head, God love her. What was going through her mind? The fear, and nobody to help.” 

At the time of her disappearance, Jo Jo was on her way home from Dublin, where she had enjoyed socialising in Bruxelles Bar, Harry Street, Dublin 2. She had left home in Callan at 8.30am that morning and had hoped to get a bus back home to Kilkenny that night, but missed it.

She instead took a bus to Naas, Co Kildare. Her intention was to then hitch a lift back home to Callan and managed to get a spin from Naas as far as the N9 at Kilcullen, Co Kildare, according to gardaí.

She managed to get another lift to Moone, Co Kildare, at around 11.15pm, from where she made the last phone call to Mary Cullinan.

She cut the phone call short and told Mary that a car had stopped and she was going to take the lift. No further sighting was made of Jo Jo after that, and she failed to make contact with home. Concerned about her, Ms Bergin made a report to gardaí that she was missing and a missing persons case was launched.

However, the investigation into her disappearance was upgraded to murder in 2020, after the case was examined by An Garda Síochána’s Serious Crime Review Team. The upgrading coincided with the 25th anniversary of her disappearance.