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Thread: Jo Jo Dollard, 21, Missing Since November 9, 1995, Co Kildare, Ireland.

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    Jo Jo Dollard, 21, Missing Since November 9, 1995, Co Kildare, Ireland.





    http://www.kilkennypeople.ie/news/ho...-year-old.html



    Jo Jo Dollard's sister still insists she knows who murdered the Kilkenny 21 year old
    13 Nov 2016



    What if Jo Jo Dollard's sister is right? After 21 years, Mary Phelan continues to insist that she knows the identity of her sister's killer over two decades ago.

    Jo Jo Dollard (21),Callan went missing on November 9, 1995 after making a phone call from the public phone box in Moone, Co Kildare at 11.34pm to her friend Mary Cullinane who attended a remembrance service for Jo Jo and other missing people in the Kilkenny Castle Park at the national missing persons' monument on Sunday afternoon.

    The notorious rapist Larry Murphy from Wicklow has been ruled out as a suspect in Jo Jo's disappearance.

    Jo Jo's eldest sister, Mrs Mary Phelan said that the identity of the main suspect was named to her by a senior garda just a few weeks into the investigation and nothing she has been told in the intervening 21 years has done anything to change her mind. This is something denied by the gardai.

    As far as Mary knows, that person has never been totally ruled out as a suspect - And this cannot be verified with investigating officers.

    She wants this person's story re-examined and she wants part of a farm in Leinster searched for Jo Jo's remains.

    And the call for a re-examination into this aspect of the investigation has been backed up by Deputy John McGuinness who has, over a long number of years, kept the memory of Jo Jo Dollard in the public eye.

    ?We need to re-examine everything and for once and for all put Mary Phelan's theory to the test,? he said.

    ?We also need to seek the assistance of outside agencies, like the FBI and others to sift through the evidence and see where it leads us,? Deputy McGuinness said.

    Speaking at the memorial service, Deputy McGuinness said anyone with information should now come forward because, with the passage of time, loyalties may have changed.

    ?And I am asking people who know something, however trivial they may think it is, to come forward as an act of humanity,? he said.

    The service ended with the ?Amazing Grace? sung by Fr Willie Purcell and the rest of the large gathering.

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    http://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish...rebar_facebook

    Family of missing Jo Jo Dullard demand dig underneath a derelict cottage in Wicklow

    Mary and her husband Martin claim gardai are shielding the killer because of his strong political connections

    Her sister Mary Phelan, aged 67, now wants a major excavation at the Co Wicklow farm.

    The man who owns the dogs claims he went on to the land in 2011 and after discovering the items he brought them directly to gardai ? but an official search was never sanctioned.



    Missing Jo Jo Dullard?s sister is calling on gardai to dig underneath a derelict cottage in a fresh bid to find her remains.

    Six years ago search and rescue dogs recovered a piece of bone, a slash hook and a shoe on the land where the family believes she was buried after being murdered.


    Her sister Mary Phelan, aged 67, now wants a major excavation at the Co Wicklow farm.


    The man who owns the dogs claims he went on to the land in 2011 and after discovering the items he brought them directly to gardai ? but an official search was never sanctioned.



    In a letter written this week to the Garda Commissioner and the Justice Minister, the family?s lawyer Gavin Booth said: ?The property there contains a cottage without a roof.

    ?But it seems that concrete on part of the floor seems quite recent in comparison to the rest of the structure, along with disturbed ground outside of the property.?

    This is the same farmland that Jo Jo?s sister campaigned to have searched in 1996 but she claimed it was ?only ever given a cursory glance?.

    Mary and her husband Martin added gardai are shielding the killer because of his strong political connections.

    The retired farming couple from Cuffesgrange in Co Kilkenny, have launched a legal challenge to get justice for Jo Jo ?after all these years?.



    The pair said construction work was underway at a different property on the same site at around the time she disappeared, but builders were sent home for two weeks.

    Mary added she believes this was to allow the killer to dump her body without being seen.

    The 21-year-old was hitch-hiking home to Kilkenny in November 1995 when she was picked up outside a phone box in Moone, Co Kildare.

    Mary claimed she was told by a senior garda at a meeting the following year that officers knew who killed Jo Jo but that the probe ?won?t go anywhere?.

    She added: ?He was able to give us disturbing details of how her body was disposed of, saying she was wrapped in plastic and buried 10ft underground using a Hymac digger. But he also told us the investigation won?t go anywhere.?

    Mr Booth said: ?We are advised this main suspect was interviewed on a number of occasions and was considered to be the person responsible. He had a recent cut on his face which has since left a scar.?



    Mary believes this wound was caused during a sexual attack on Jo Jo before she was murdered.


    She added: ?Jo Jo fought back. He never got medical attention for that cut on his face and we think it was because he didn?t want to bring any attention to himself.?

    Gardai say it remains ?an active investigation? but the family claim they have not heard anything in over 10 years.

    They are demanding a ?comprehensive update on all leads? and a meeting with senior gardai.

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    Just bumping to update. Jo Jo is still missing



    https://www.irishtimes.com/news/irel...tice-1.3468503

    Jo Jo Dullard’s sister dies without seeing closure or justice

    Mary Phelan claimed garda? had a ‘chief suspect’ for the disappearance of her sister

    Fri, Apr 20, 2018, 15:54 Updated: Fri, Apr 20, 2018, 16:18
    Conor Kane


    Josephine “Jo Jo” Dullard has been missing since 1995. In 1999, garda posters were put up seeking the public’s help in locating the Kilkenny woman. Photograph: Bryan O’Brien



    The death has occurred of Mary Phelan, who spent more than 22 years of her life searching for her missing sister Jo Jo Dullard.

    Mrs Phelan died at her home in Cuffesgrange, Co Kilkenny, after a short illness, and did not live to see closure or justice in the case of Jo Jo, who disappeared in 1995 at the age of 21.

    Jo Jo Dullard was last seen in Moone in Co Kildare on the night of November 9th, 1995. She had been in Dublin but missed the last bus home to Callan and instead hitched a lift to Naas and another to Moone.

    She rang a friend from a phonebox and said that a car had pulled up, but was never heard from again.

    A major search was mounted for her in the days, weeks and months that followed, but no trace of her was ever found.

    Her sister Mary Phelan said several times in recent years that the garda? had information about a “chief suspect” in the case, but that it was not pursued.

    Mrs Phelan campaigned vigorously for information during the intervening years, bringing her case to the Government and meeting people including Bertie Ahern, Hilary Clinton during a visit to America, and officers from the FBI who were expert in missing persons cases. She was instrumental in moves to establish Operation Trace, set up by Garda management in 1998 to investigate the disappearances of six young women in Leinster over a five-year period.

    Family friend and local Fianna Fail TD John McGuinness, who helped Mrs Phelan with her campaign, described her on Friday as “an extraordinary woman” who was determined to do as much as she could for Jo Jo.

    The 67-year-old spent some time in St Luke’s Hospital in Kilkenny recently and was moved to Castlecomer District Hospital before asking to be brought home to die.

    “She was a great character, but she never got closure,” Mr McGuinness said. “Up to the end, she wasn’t talking about her death or her illness, she was talking about Jo Jo Dullard. She was an amazing woman.”


    https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crim...lude-1.4384858

    JoJo Dullard ‘met her death through violent means’, garda? conclude


    The 21-year-old was last seen at a public phone box in Co Kildare in November 1995

    Mon, Oct 19, 2020, 07:59 Updated: Mon, Oct 19, 2020, 15:46
    Conor Gallagher Crime Correspondent







    JoJo Dullard, the 21-year-old Kilkenny woman who disappeared without trace 25 years ago, is dead and “met her death through violent means,” garda? have concluded.

    The disappearance of Ms Dullard, who was last seen in Moone, Co Kildare, is now being treated as a murder investigation with cold case detectives issuing a renewed appeal for information, including from those who may have given false statements in the past.

    The classification of the case as a murder investigation comes about as a result of a review by the Garda’s Serious Crime Review Team (SCRT) which began in February.


    Detectives, led by Detective Superintendent Desmond McTiernan, conducted an independent review of the case files in Ms Dullard’s disappearance.

    A major part of their work was a “victimology and proof of life” analysis. This process allowed them to reasonably determine Ms Dullard is no longer alive and that she did not met her death through suicide, Det Supt McTiernan said.

    “We can’t just upgrade to murder just on a gut feeling. We have to have a reasonable rationale that would show why we are categorising it as murder. The work that has gone into classifying it as that is substantial.”

    He said that having carried out this work, garda? are “quite satisfied that Jo Jo is dead and met her death through violent means.”


    Jo Jo Dullard’s sister Mary Phelan, right, with her husband Martin and their children with the memorial stone besides the phone box that Jo Jo made her last call from. Photograph: John Cogill


    Ms Dullard enjoyed life, had plans for the future and was excited for those plans, he said.

    “We are satisfied that now that JoJo came to harm in Moone and we are classifying this investigation as a murder,” said Kildare Superintendent Martin Walker.




    Garda? were reluctant to share any new information it may have gathered since February in relation to the investigation.

    Supt Walker said there was no “silver bullet” that moved the investigation forward. He instead cited the “hard work” of the SCRT.

    Det Supt McTiernan declined to comment on any new information it has received since February.

    He said the investigation will be looking at “old rumours and old information and current intelligence and current information” but that it will be largely dependent on people coming forward with information.

    At a press briefing in Newbridge, Ms Dullard’s sister Kathleen Bergin made an emotional plea for help to “bring JoJo home.”

    “After all these years we have known in our hearts and accepted that JoJo is no longer alive and we are hopeful that the team will be able to move the case along further and maybe, please God, find answers to our questions.

    She appealed for people with information to “find it in your heart” to come forward. “We understand if fear has been holding them back. Please believe us. We just want to have JoJo brought home. You will not be judged.”

    No one has ever been arrested in relation to Ms Dullard’s disappearance on the night of November 9th, 1995.

    For years rumours circulated that she and several other missing women were the victim of a serial killer operating in the east of the country in the mid to late nineties. Today garda? are sceptical of the theory; most of the missing women are now suspected to have been killed by someone known to them.


    However this is not the case in Ms Dullard’s murder and no major suspects have ever been identified in her disappearance.

    Ms Dullard had been socialising in Bruxelles Bar in Dublin on November 9th before starting her journey home to Callan in Kilkenny.

    She missed the last bus to Callan so got a bus to Naas before hitching two lifts to Moone. At 11.37pm she called a friend from a phonebox in Moone to tell her she would be home soon and that a car had just stopped for her. That was the last time anyone heard from Ms Dullard.

    At the time Ms Dullard was wearing blue jeans, black boots and a small rucksack. She was also carrying a black Sanyo cassette player and matching headphones.

    On Monday, garda? said they are particularly interested in anyone who might have found the portable cassette player or been given it is suspicious circumstances, perhaps as a Christmas gift.

    They are also keen to speak to anyone who was hitch hiking around Moone, Co. Kildare at the end of October 1995 or the start of November 1995, or anyone who picked up a hitchhiker during that period.

    “I know its 25 years but it’s very important people examine their conscience and come forward,” Supt Walker said.
    [/QUOTE]

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    Just bumping to update. Jo Jo is still missing



    https://www.irishtimes.com/news/irel...tice-1.3468503

    Jo Jo Dullard?s sister dies without seeing closure or justice

    Mary Phelan claimed garda? had a ?chief suspect? for the disappearance of her sister

    Fri, Apr 20, 2018, 15:54 Updated: Fri, Apr 20, 2018, 16:18
    Conor Kane


    Josephine ?Jo Jo? Dullard has been missing since 1995. In 1999, garda posters were put up seeking the public?s help in locating the Kilkenny woman. Photograph: Bryan O?Brien



    The death has occurred of Mary Phelan, who spent more than 22 years of her life searching for her missing sister Jo Jo Dullard.

    Mrs Phelan died at her home in Cuffesgrange, Co Kilkenny, after a short illness, and did not live to see closure or justice in the case of Jo Jo, who disappeared in 1995 at the age of 21.

    Jo Jo Dullard was last seen in Moone in Co Kildare on the night of November 9th, 1995. She had been in Dublin but missed the last bus home to Callan and instead hitched a lift to Naas and another to Moone.

    She rang a friend from a phonebox and said that a car had pulled up, but was never heard from again.

    A major search was mounted for her in the days, weeks and months that followed, but no trace of her was ever found.

    Her sister Mary Phelan said several times in recent years that the garda? had information about a ?chief suspect? in the case, but that it was not pursued.

    Mrs Phelan campaigned vigorously for information during the intervening years, bringing her case to the Government and meeting people including Bertie Ahern, Hilary Clinton during a visit to America, and officers from the FBI who were expert in missing persons cases. She was instrumental in moves to establish Operation Trace, set up by Garda management in 1998 to investigate the disappearances of six young women in Leinster over a five-year period.

    Family friend and local Fianna Fail TD John McGuinness, who helped Mrs Phelan with her campaign, described her on Friday as ?an extraordinary woman? who was determined to do as much as she could for Jo Jo.

    The 67-year-old spent some time in St Luke?s Hospital in Kilkenny recently and was moved to Castlecomer District Hospital before asking to be brought home to die.

    ?She was a great character, but she never got closure,? Mr McGuinness said. ?Up to the end, she wasn?t talking about her death or her illness, she was talking about Jo Jo Dullard. She was an amazing woman.?


    https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crim...lude-1.4384858

    JoJo Dullard ?met her death through violent means?, garda? conclude


    The 21-year-old was last seen at a public phone box in Co Kildare in November 1995

    Mon, Oct 19, 2020, 07:59 Updated: Mon, Oct 19, 2020, 15:46
    Conor Gallagher Crime Correspondent







    JoJo Dullard, the 21-year-old Kilkenny woman who disappeared without trace 25 years ago, is dead and ?met her death through violent means,? garda? have concluded.

    The disappearance of Ms Dullard, who was last seen in Moone, Co Kildare, is now being treated as a murder investigation with cold case detectives issuing a renewed appeal for information, including from those who may have given false statements in the past.

    The classification of the case as a murder investigation comes about as a result of a review by the Garda?s Serious Crime Review Team (SCRT) which began in February.


    Detectives, led by Detective Superintendent Desmond McTiernan, conducted an independent review of the case files in Ms Dullard?s disappearance.

    A major part of their work was a ?victimology and proof of life? analysis. This process allowed them to reasonably determine Ms Dullard is no longer alive and that she did not met her death through suicide, Det Supt McTiernan said.

    ?We can?t just upgrade to murder just on a gut feeling. We have to have a reasonable rationale that would show why we are categorising it as murder. The work that has gone into classifying it as that is substantial.?

    He said that having carried out this work, garda? are ?quite satisfied that Jo Jo is dead and met her death through violent means.?


    Jo Jo Dullard?s sister Mary Phelan, right, with her husband Martin and their children with the memorial stone besides the phone box that Jo Jo made her last call from. Photograph: John Cogill


    Ms Dullard enjoyed life, had plans for the future and was excited for those plans, he said.

    ?We are satisfied that now that JoJo came to harm in Moone and we are classifying this investigation as a murder,? said Kildare Superintendent Martin Walker.




    Garda? were reluctant to share any new information it may have gathered since February in relation to the investigation.

    Supt Walker said there was no ?silver bullet? that moved the investigation forward. He instead cited the ?hard work? of the SCRT.

    Det Supt McTiernan declined to comment on any new information it has received since February.

    He said the investigation will be looking at ?old rumours and old information and current intelligence and current information? but that it will be largely dependent on people coming forward with information.

    At a press briefing in Newbridge, Ms Dullard?s sister Kathleen Bergin made an emotional plea for help to ?bring JoJo home.?

    ?After all these years we have known in our hearts and accepted that JoJo is no longer alive and we are hopeful that the team will be able to move the case along further and maybe, please God, find answers to our questions.

    She appealed for people with information to ?find it in your heart? to come forward. ?We understand if fear has been holding them back. Please believe us. We just want to have JoJo brought home. You will not be judged.?

    No one has ever been arrested in relation to Ms Dullard?s disappearance on the night of November 9th, 1995.

    For years rumours circulated that she and several other missing women were the victim of a serial killer operating in the east of the country in the mid to late nineties. Today garda? are sceptical of the theory; most of the missing women are now suspected to have been killed by someone known to them.


    However this is not the case in Ms Dullard?s murder and no major suspects have ever been identified in her disappearance.

    Ms Dullard had been socialising in Bruxelles Bar in Dublin on November 9th before starting her journey home to Callan in Kilkenny.

    She missed the last bus to Callan so got a bus to Naas before hitching two lifts to Moone. At 11.37pm she called a friend from a phonebox in Moone to tell her she would be home soon and that a car had just stopped for her. That was the last time anyone heard from Ms Dullard.

    At the time Ms Dullard was wearing blue jeans, black boots and a small rucksack. She was also carrying a black Sanyo cassette player and matching headphones.

    On Monday, garda? said they are particularly interested in anyone who might have found the portable cassette player or been given it is suspicious circumstances, perhaps as a Christmas gift.

    They are also keen to speak to anyone who was hitch hiking around Moone, Co. Kildare at the end of October 1995 or the start of November 1995, or anyone who picked up a hitchhiker during that period.

    ?I know its 25 years but it?s very important people examine their conscience and come forward,? Supt Walker said.
    [/QUOTE]

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