Posted by Updated / Wednesday, 31 Dec 2025 08:42
Midlands Correspondent
Next year will mark 30 years since Fiona Pender disappeared.
Almost three decades on, her family still hold out hope for answers, but fear that as the years go by, the 25-year-old and her unborn baby will be forgotten.
In 1996, John Bruton was taoiseach, Bill Clinton was re-elected as US president and journalist Veronica Guerin was murdered in her car in June and Detective Garda Jerry McCabe was killed in Adare, Co Limerick.
That same year Ireland won the Eurovision again and in August the Spice Girls’ ‘Wannabe’ was number one in the charts.
That same month, Fiona Pender, a hairdresser from Tullamore, Co Offaly, went missing.
Next year will mark 30 years since she vanished, without a trace. Her family are still waiting for answers.
Earlier this year, their hopes were raised once again when gardaí carried out two days of searches in counties Laois and Offaly.
Nothing came of the searches, described at the time as “bottoming out” lines of enquiry.
The case remains open and her family hold out hope that somebody somewhere will come forward with information.
Fiona’s story is one that most people are familiar with.
On 22 August 1996, Fiona, who was seven months pregnant, and her mother Josephine headed into town to shop for baby clothes.
She and her mother were very close and both were excited about the arrival of the baby due in October. Fiona was glowing, full of hope and expectation.
Fiona’s aunt Bernie O’Reilly was living in London at the time, but was at home on holiday just before Fiona went missing.
“We were going back to England and before we went back, Karen my daughter went down town with my sister for a wander.
“They met Fiona at Hayes Cross and Karen remarked how Fiona was really hot, it was a very warm day,” she said.
“She had a bag of shopping and was going home to cook the dinner but she was never seen again,” Ms O’Reilly added.
Fiona had spent time in London with her partner but had moved home in the months prior to her disappearance. When she was in London, she stayed for a time with her aunt Bernie.
“I often think about her when she came to England, she was only a child really and she stayed with me for a while.
“She was a lovely kid, she was very gentle and she was beautiful,” Ms O’Reilly said.
Fiona grew up in Connolly Park in Tullamore, not far from the Grand Canal, with her parents and brothers. Her brother Mark was killed in a motorbike crash in June 1995.
She left school after completing her Inter Cert and trained as a hairdresser and had worked in Clarke’s unisex salon in Tullamore. She also worked part-time as a model.
She was outgoing and friendly, her aunt said.
In the days after her disappearance gardaí launched a major operation with searches and public appeals for information.
Gardaí suspected from early on in the investigation that Fiona had come to serious harm.
Disappearing was totally out of character for her. She was very happy to be pregnant and excited about becoming a mother.
Yet since around 6am on 23 August 1996, when her partner said he last saw her, there has not been a sighting of Fiona.
“We’re just living in hope now, but it’s had an awful effect on all of us, it’s always there,” said Ms O’Reilly.
In the intervening 30 years, Fiona’s father Seán died by suicide and her mother Josephine, who campaigned tirelessly for answers, died in September 2017.
Her disappearance has weighed heavily on the family. In 2008, as a reporter with Newstalk, I sat in the sitting room of Josephine Pender’s home as a search got under way in Monicknew in the Slieve Bloom mountains.
It followed the discovery of a cross with the words ‘Fiona Pender. Buried here, August 22nd, 1996’ written on it. The remains of the 25-year-old were not found there.
I remember ringing Josephine that morning and asking her to do an interview.
She had just finished speaking to my now colleague Fran McNulty and invited me inside.
She never refused an interview, her belief being that the more she talked about Fiona, the greater chance she might have in finding her.
She could not hide the pain, it was etched on her face. In the space of 14 months, she had lost two children, Mark in a motorbike crash and Fiona, missing presumed murdered.
Sitting with Josephine for half an hour that day gave me a glimpse into the heavy heartbreak she was carrying.
She was not in great health at the time, yet she vowed never to give up the fight for Fiona and she did not.
Even in the weeks before her death, she made a final appeal for information, saying that she was not into punishment and just wanted to give Fiona and her unborn child back a bit of dignity and lay them to rest.
“Her name is known throughout the country but you know, we’re the ones that have to live with it, and walk in those shoes,” said her aunt Bernie O’Reilly.
“Maybe someone out there has some little bit of information but at times I feel, 30 years on, will it ever happen?” she said.
In the almost 30 years since Fiona went missing, gardaí have carried out several searches at locations in Laois and Offaly.
Most notably in 1997, five arrests were made, including the chief suspect.
More than 300 statements have been taken, and thousands of documents have been gathered however, without enough evidence, gardaí have never been able to charge anyone in connection with her disappearance and murder.
The main suspect is understood to have emigrated, and the Director of Public Prosecutions will need a strong case if there is to be an extradition and a person cannot be extradited solely for the purposes of questioning them.
While the searches which took place during the summer ended without any result, it put Fiona’s case back into the spotlight.
“That’s kind of the hardest part of all of this. The longer time goes on, the harder it is, because you worry it will get to a stage where she could be forgotten about,” Ms O’Reilly said.
“I think as along we’re alive, we’ll fight and we hope that something will come of it,” she added.
Ms O’Reilly said in the 2022 census, she made sure to write about Fiona in the time capsule section, a part of the census which allowed people to write personal messages for future generations, to be opened and released publicly a century later.
“I wrote about Fiona, so whoever opens it and reads it in a hundred years will read about Fiona.
“Please God by then they will have found her. We’ll all be gone but I felt I had to let people know,” she said.
Over the years, gardaí have appealed for information.
They believe there is information in the local community in Tullamore and in the surrounding areas.
Fiona’s aunt believes that too.
“There are people out there. They know what happened and the sad thing about it is the person that’s done this, has had 30 years of their life to live, Fiona didn’t get that.
“It’s never too late,” she said.
Last week, Bernie O’Reilly went to mass in Durrow, where Josephine, Seán and Mark Pender are buried.
“I went out to mass last week in Durrow. It was my Dad’s birthday.
“I went to the grave and I said to Seán and Josie, hopefully she will be there one day beside them.
“You think of the baby too. It’s Christmas, a time for family. Fiona, she was a lovely, lovely young girl, but she was also a mother and if anyone out there has information, please come forward.
“I don’t care what happens after that. The most important thing is that Fiona and her little baby are put her to rest, which will give us all of us some peace of mind,” she said.
There is a memorial on the Grand Canal, not far from where Fiona grew up, which was designed by her brother John.
The inscription reads: “A mother holds her child’s hand for only a few moments in time, but she holds them in her heart forever.”
For Fiona Pender’s family and the people of Tullamore, it is the not knowing that hurts the most and until her remains are found, they will carry that pain and heartbreak.
Perhaps three decades on, they will finally get some answers, said her aunt Bernie O’Reilly.
“We will always be looking and hoping for her,” she said.
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