Family of Jo Jo Dullard issue public appeal as Wicklow search continues

21-year-old Jo Jo 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.

The family of Jo Jo Dullard has appealed to anyone with information about her case to come forward as a search for her and Deirdre Jacob continues.

In the statement posted to social media on Saturday night, Jo Jo's sister Kathleen Bergin said: "With the ongoing search for JoJo and Deirdre this last week, we would like to express our heartfelt thanks for all your wonderful support. Thank you for your kind words, prayers and keeping a candle lighting for JoJo and Deirdre."

She continued: "Our thoughts and prayers are with the teams carrying out this search and it is reassuring to hear the Garda Commissioner say in a recent Media Report, that there is no rush on this search and they have got everything they need to do the work there."

She urged anyone with information "no matter how small" to come forward.

Gardai have been searching a location between Dunlavin and Baltinglass in Wicklow since last Monday and are using an excavator in the operation aimed at locating the missing women. Both are the subject of murder investigations.

Deirdre Jacob disappeared from near the front gates of her parents’ home in Roseberry, Newbridge, Co Kildare on the afternoon of July 28 1998. She was 18 at the time.

20/002/2026 Gardai have brought in a second digger and a dumper to help with the search of an area of land on a quarry in Castleruddery Upper in Co.Wicklow for missing Jo Jo Dullard and Deirdre Jacob today..Photo by Padraig O'Reilly

21-year-old Jo Jo 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.

She 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 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.