Fresh Garda Search Launched for Missing Irish Women

Irish police (Gardaí) have begun a new search operation in County Wicklow as part of ongoing investigations into the disappearances and suspected murders of Josephine “Jo Jo” Dullard and Deirdre Jacob, two young women who vanished in the 1990s. The search, on open ground near the Wicklow–Kildare border, will include excavation, technical and forensic examinations over the coming days, police said in a statement. Officials emphasised that the investigation remains active and that resources from state technical and forensic teams are supporting the operation.

Dullard, then 21, was last seen on 9 November 1995 in Moone, County Kildare, as she was trying to make her way home to Kilkenny after socialising in Dublin. Her case was upgraded from a missing person inquiry to a murder investigation in 2020. Jacob, who was 18 when she disappeared on 28 July 1998, was last seen near her family home in Newbridge, County Kildare, and her disappearance was reclassified as a murder inquiry in 2018.

An Garda Síochána said it continues to “keep an open mind” on both investigations and urged anyone with information, however small, to contact Garda stations or the confidential line. Families of Dullard and Jacob have been kept fully informed of developments, police added, while the Serious Crime Review Team and the Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation lead the search with local support.

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