Fiona Pender: Second dig to begin in search for missing woman
Detectives investigating the disappearance of a woman who went missing in the Republic of Ireland almost 30 years ago have begun a search at a second location.Twenty-five-year-old Fiona Pender was seven months pregnant when she disappeared in Tullamore, County Offaly in 1996.Earlier this week, gardaí (Irish police) said they had reclassified their missing person investigation to a murder inquiry. Having completed a search of land in County Offaly on Tuesday, the search moved to the Slieve Bloom mountains in County Laois on Wednesday.
The new site is a piece of open ground which will be "subject to excavation, technical and forensic examinations," a garda statement said. Ms Pender was last seen at about 06:00 local time 23 August 1996 at her flat on Church Street, Tullamore.She 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.
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 "not being released for operational reasons" but added that they had kept Ms Pender's family updated. They repeated their appeal to "any person who may have previously come forward who felt they could not provide gardaí with all the information they had in relation to this matter, to contact the investigation team again".
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 "discovered and collated thousands of documents".
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