Family of Jo Jo Dullard & Deirdre Jacob visit search site

THE relatives of missing Jo Jo Dullard from Callan and Deirdre Jacob from Newbridge have visited at the search site at a site on the Kildare/Wicklow border for the for the remains of the two women feared murdered back in the 1990s.

Deirdre’s parents Michael and Bernadette and Jo Jo’s sister Kathleen Bergin were shown around the garda dig over the weekend as officers continue with a huge excavation of land around the remote quarry in a search now entering its second week.

The families arrived on Sunday evening (22 February) as Gardai concluded their seventh day of searching at the site.

It was the first time the Jacob family were present since the dig started last Monday.

Before arriving at the site, garda investigators also examined a car axle which had been recovered.

However, detectives don’t believe it is linked to any of the cars the prime suspect had access to at the time, and it is understood to be from a more recent vehicle.

Meanwhile, the loved ones of Jo Jo — who disappeared in November 1995 — thanked the public for the “wonderful support” they have received following the latest search.

In a social media post, they wrote: “With the ongoing search for Jo Jo 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 lit for Jo Jo and Deirdre.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the teams carrying out this search and it is reassuring to hear the Garda Commissioner say they have everything they need.

“We are appealing to those people who have information, no matter how small, to please come forward.” 

Anyone with information is asked to call Naas Garda station on 045 884 300, the Garda confidential line on 1800 666 111 or the missing persons helpline on 1800 442 552.

On November 9, 1995, 21-year-old Jo Jo was last seen in a phone box in Moone, Kildare, after spending the evening socialising in Dublin.

The young woman, from Callan, got the bus to Naas, and managed to hitch two lifts to Moone, after she missed the bus home.

She then made a telephone call to her friend Mary Cullinan at 11.37pm and said a car had stopped for her and she was going to take the lift.

Meanwhile, fellow missing woman, 18-year-old Deirdre Jacob, was last seen outside her family home in Newbridge.

Her case was later upgraded to a murder probe in 2018 after cops received information which led them to reclassify the case.