One of Ireland’s biggest unsolved cases may finally find a resolution after three decades thanks to a new witness.
Between the late eighties and early nineties, eight women went missing from across the Emerald Isle – in what’s became known as Ireland’s Vanishing Triangle.
One of the women, Fiona Pender, was 25 and seven months pregnant when she went missing from her flat in Tullamore in August 1996.
The cases have baffled police from years, but in a major update the Gardai have upgraded Fiona’s disappearance to murder.
This week they searched a new area of land at Graigue, close to the village of Killeigh, around 8km from Tullamore, County Offaly, in the middle of Ireland.
It is understood Gardaí received new information deemed credible enough to warrant the latest search and the upgrading of the investigation.
The search of a remote area of bogland started on Tuesday as gardaí hoped for a breakthrough in the nearly 30-year investigation.
However it quickly moved to a second location on Wednesday and continued well into the night.
The force told The Irish Independent: ‘Gardaí investigating the disappearance and murder of Fiona Pender in August 1996 have today, Wednesday 28th May 2025, commenced another search operation on open ground at a location in Co. Laois.
Fiona was last seen leaving home by her boyfriend John Thomson.
In 2008 a small cross bearing her name was found along the The Slieve Bloom Way, but her body has never been recovered.
She was just one of a string of disappearances that haunted Ireland in the 1990s commonly referred to as the Vanishing Triangle, none of the women have ever been found so investigators have very little evidence to link the disappearances.
In a major update on the case, police have upgraded Fiona’s disappearance to murder and have decided to search a new area of land at Graigue, close to the village of Killeigh, around 8 km from Tullamore, Co Offaly.
‘This area of land will be searched and subject to excavation, technical and forensic examinations.
‘This search forms part of a sustained investigation carried out by Gardaí in Laois/ Offaly Garda Division over the last 28-years to establish Fiona’s whereabouts and to investigate the circumstances in which Fiona disappeared.’
Gardaí have since concluded the search operation in Co Offaly, however the results are not being released for operational reasons.
Hellbound and Down 