Missing women - Arrests in case revives call for expert bureau

THE surprise arrest of five people in the long running garda probe into the disappearance of Wexford teenager Fiona Sinnott will reawaken poignant memories of the six women who vanished without trace in one of Ireland’s great unsolved mysteries.

As their names reappear in print, parents everywhere will empathise with the families of those who went missing in Leinster over a six-year period that sent ripples of fear across the country that a serial killer was at large.

Whatever the outcome of the latest arrests, this unexpected twist in the saga will at least reassure the families of the disappeared, as well as the public, that the missing women have not been forgotten and their files have not been closed.

But the development is also a troubling reminder of Ireland’s lack of a permanent and effective garda missing persons bureau staffed by expert personnel.

With each disappearance, the names of the six women, presumed to have been murdered, were etched in the national consciousness - Annie McCarrick (1993), Jo Jo Dullard (1995), Fiona Pender (1996), Ciara Breen (1998), Deirdre Jacob (1998), and Fiona Sinnott (1998).

To the anguish of their families, no trace of them has been found. And, because of the absence of a body, the gardaí have been unable to bring closure to these tragic cases.

Amid intense investigations, a special unit, Operation Trace, was set up in 1998, three months after 18-year-old Deirdre Jacob went missing.

Initially consisting of dozens of gardaí and detectives, the unit was gradually wound down for lack of progress after following scores of leads.

Contrary to popular belief, however, no connection was made between the missing women.

When the unit was finally disbanded in 2001, Mary Phelan, Jo Jo Dullard’s sister, claimed the gardaí lacked the necessary expertise and called for a permanent missing persons bureau to be established. Four years later, no such unit exists.

As the gardaí concede, there is no central squad to travel around the country investigating missing person cases. Essentially, the only unit in operation maintains a record of missing persons, including the official garda website register where 63 cases, ranging from 1977 to the present day, are posted.

The bureau, such as it is, lacks an investigative role.

Effectively, it is down to individual superintendents to investigate missing persons cases in each district.

By the time it was finally wound up, the strength of Operation Trace had been reduced to six gardaí, five of whom were redeployed to their original posts at the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation in Dublin while one detective remained at Kildare Garda Station.

The harrowing circumstances of Fiona Sinnott’s disappearance are painfully etched in the collective mind of the local community where she was last seen in February 1998. At the time, she was looking forward to her baby’s first birthday and her sister Diane’s 21st.

Fiona was not reported missing for several days.

Gardaí have confirmed two women and two men were being held under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act in connection with her disappearance. A third woman was questioned and released without charge.

Inevitably, after a lapse of seven years and eight months, hopes of a breakthrough in Fiona’s case will be rekindled. But caution is warranted.

So many leads have vanished into the sands before, it is too early to talk of a breakthrough.