Search ends for missing pregnant woman

Gardaí (Irish police) investigating the disappearance and murder of a pregnant Irish woman have concluded the search operation in the Slieve Bloom mountains in County Laois.

A new search had been under way to try to find the remains of Fiona Pender, 25, who went missing in County Offaly.

She was last seen at about 06:00 local time, on 23 August 1996 at her flat on Church Street, Tullamore.

The results of the searches are not being released for operational reasons.

On Monday gardaí said they had reclassified their missing person investigation to a murder inquiry.

Having completed a search of land near Killeigh in County Offaly on Tuesday, the search moved to the Slieve Bloom mountains close to Clonaslee in County Laois on Wednesday. Killeigh and Clonaslee are about a 10-minute drive apart across the county boundary.

Ms Pender was 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.

Fiona Pender grew up in Tullamore, County Offaly, in a family that has suffered a number of bereavements.

She had two brothers, but just over a year before Fiona went missing her brother Mark died in motorcycle crash.

At the time of her disappearance in August 1996, Fiona was working as a hairdresser and living with her boyfriend in a flat in Church Street in her hometown.

She had spent the previous day "shopping for baby clothes with her mother in Tullamore," according to her missing person profile, external.

"She was in good form and was looking forward to the birth of her baby," the garda website states.

As soon as she went missing, the Pender family began a long campaign seeking the public's help to find Fiona, led by her mother Josephine.

In 2000, almost four years after Fiona went missing, her 50-year-old father Sean Pender was found dead in the family home.

His widow believes he took his own life, telling a Tullamore reporter: "He couldn't live without his children.", external

The investigation into Fiona's disappearance continued for 28 years without success, despite a number of searches and digs in different areas.

In May 2008, a hillwalker came across a makeshift cross which had been recently put up in Monicknew Woods in the Slieve Bloom mountains.

Two planks of wood had been hammered together and written on the cross were the words: "Fiona Pender. Buried here, August 22nd, 1996."

Gardaí began a search of a two-acre site in the area, assisted by soldiers and cadaver dogs, but there was no sign of Ms Pender's body.

Fiona's mother Josephine died aged 68 in 2017, external, having never discovered the fate of her only daughter and her unborn grandchild.

The Irish Times reported that a "candle of hope" was placed on the altar during her funeral "in memory of all missing people".

In tribute to her daughter, a section of walkway along the Grand Canal outside Tullamore is known as the Fiona Pender Way.