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Fiona Pender: Second dig to start out in seek for lacking lady

Fiona Pender: Second dig to start out in seek for lacking lady

An Garda Síochána A close-up photo of Fiona Pender, a woman with blonde curly hair, looking directly at the camera. She is wearing red lipstick and a red top.An Garda Síochána

Fiona Pender, 25, used to be seven months pregnant when she disappeared in 1996

Detectives investigating the disappearance of a lady who went lacking within the Republic of Ireland nearly 30 years in the past have begun a seek at a 2d location.

Twenty-five-year-old Fiona Pender used to be seven months pregnant when she disappeared in Tullamore, County Offaly in 1996.

Earlier this week, gardaí (Irish police) stated they’d reclassified their lacking individual investigation to a homicide inquiry.

Having finished a seek of land in County Offaly on Tuesday, the quest moved to the Slieve Bloom mountains in County Laois on Wednesday.

The new website online is a work of open flooring which might be “subject to excavation, technical and forensic examinations,” a garda observation stated.

Ms Pender used to be final noticed at about 06:00 native time 23 August 1996 at her flat on Church Street, Tullamore.

She used to be 5’5″ in height, had long blonde hair and was said to be looking forward to the birth of her child.

She was wearing white leggings and bright coloured clothing when she went missing.

An Garda Síochána Fiona Pender, a young woman with long, curly blonde hair, smiling.  She is wearing a white top with a floral patternAn Garda Síochána

On Monday, gardaí confirmed the search for Fiona Pender has been re-classified as a murder investigation

The previous search, on open ground about 5km (3 miles) from Tullamore, began on Monday and ended on Tuesday evening.

Irish broadcaster RTÉ reported that the operation was concentrated on bogland at Graigue, near the village of Killeigh.

Gardaí said the results of the searches were “no longer being launched for operational causes” but added that they had kept Ms Pender’s family updated.

They repeated their appeal to “anyone who can have in the past come ahead who felt they may no longer supply gardaí with the entire data they’d in the case of this subject, to touch the investigation group once more”.

What has changed with the latest searches?

Niall Carson/PA Wire A garda officer standing near a white cordon during a search of open ground outside Tullamore, County  Offaly, on Monday 26 May 2025.  The officer is wearing a cap and a dark uniform with a yellow high-vis section around his shoulders and chest.  He is looking towards a dark, boggy lane, surrounded by green vegetation. Niall Carson/PA Wire

Analysis through BBC Dublin reporter Kevin Sharkey:

Can an area around the Slieve Bloom Mountains in the Irish midlands yield a clue about what happened to Fiona Pender in the summer of 1996?

That is a question being asked locally and around the country as gardaí begin a second search this week to try to locate the remains of the hairdresser and part-time model who was preparing for the birth of her baby when she disappeared.

The hope at the beginning of each search since the young woman went missing almost 29 years ago has been that it might finally end her family’s long and agonising wait for a breakthrough.

To date, every search has ended in disappointment.

The latest search, in County Laois, is just across the county border from where another search concluded in County Offaly on Tuesday.

What is different about these two searches is that they are the first digs conducted by search teams since the investigation into the disappearance of Ms Pender was upgraded to murder at the beginning of this week.

To date there have been no convictions in relation to Ms Pender’s disappearance nor her suspected murder.

However, over the course of the 28-year missing person investigation, five people have previously been arrested and detained.

The investigation team have also taken more than 300 statements and “found out and collated hundreds of paperwork”.


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