Fiona Sinnott search: ‘We just pray to God now that this is it ... it's been a long time'

Irish Times

3 days ago

For the third time this year, a team of
gardaí
has begun a search and excavation operation hoping to find the remains of a woman who went missing in the 1990s and is assumed murdered.
Fiona Sinnott was 19, and mother to an 11-month old daughter, when she vanished in 1998 in
Co Wexford
after socialising in her local pub on a Sunday night.
On Thursday, her sister Diane and cousin Gina gathered with other family members at the excavation site in the Ballydusker area, close to the N25 between Wexford town and Rosslare.
They were 'shocked' to learn hours earlier that a dig for Fiona's remains was getting under way near Killinick village. They said they were nervous but also hopeful that Fiona's disappearance 27 years ago could be solved.
'We're all very anxious at the minute, we're all down here at the dig site waiting on news,' said Gina. 'It's just a waiting game now. We're always hopeful that the news we've been waiting for will come, and that this will be it.'
She said Fiona was a 'very vivacious', funny and caring person. 'She loved her family and she was loved by everybody. She was a real joker and that's what we remember her for, her jokes and getting up to mischief.'
Gina described the Garda operation as 'pretty extensive', involving road closures and a no-fly zone being put in place, with heavy machinery also moved on to the site on Thursday.
'This (search) came out of the blue for us so we're just still in shock. If it's the case that she's not there we know how to handle it because we've done our own digs in the past,' she said.
People taking part in a march marking the 10th anniversary of the disappearance of Fiona Sinnott on the quayside in Wexford.
Photograph: Eric Luke
'But we were talking among ourselves ... 'are we prepared if she is there, how are we going to feel?' And we haven't prepared ourselves for that. As much as we like to think she is there, there's no preparing yourself for it. But as a family we're holding on to every little bit of hope that we can get.'
Fiona Sinnott was last seen in public, by her friends, as she left Butler's pub in Broadway at about midnight on Sunday, February 8th, 1998.
She left the pub with her former partner, Seán Carroll, the father of Ms Sinnott's daughter. He told gardaí he had spent the night in Ms Sinnott's cottage in nearby Ballycushlane and that she was still there when he left the next morning.
Gina Sinnott pointed out that after Fiona was last seen in public, leaving the pub, a man and woman were seen walking at Kisha Cross, Broadway, and that two young men – aged in their late teens or early 20s – were close by.
Gardaí have for years believed that Fiona Sinnott was murdered by someone known to her and her remains were concealed
She urged the two young men, who have never come forward, to contact gardaí.
Gardaí have for years followed a main line of inquiry. They believe Ms Sinnott was murdered by someone known to her and her remains were concealed.
Detectives are convinced that
Annie McCarrick
and
Fiona Pender
were killed in the same way – in 1993 in south Dublin and 1996 in Tullamore, Co Offaly, respectively. Searches and excavations, intended to find their remains, but which yielded nothing, took place in Dublin and Offaly-Laois in May and June.
The circumstances of the three cases have an eerily depressing familiarity but they are not linked in any way.
The investigation into Ms Sinnott's murder has followed a different path to that of Ms Pender and Ms Carrick in that the Wexford teenager's disappearance has been treated as a murder for the last 20 years. The Pender and McCarrick cases were only upgraded to murder inquiries from missing persons investigations around 30 years after they vanished.
The youngest of five siblings, Ms Sinnott had previously gone missing for a short period but had turned up safe and well. As a result, her disappearance in 1998 was not reported to gardaí until February 18th, 10 days after the last sighting of her in public. It was a head start for her killer, offering time to conceal evidence, including Fiona's remains.
Six arrests were made in September 2005, including of the chief suspect, by gardaí investigating the murder. Nobody has ever faced criminal charges.
Digs were also carried out at two locations in Wexford in January and July 2006. However, no remains were found.
Diane, who Fiona had a particularly strong bond with, described herself as 'nervous and hopeful' that Thursday's Garda operation might provide a breakthrough.
'We just pray to God now that this is it ... it's been a long time,' she said.
'It's upsetting, but we're just praying that something will come out of this today. The guards came down to us not so long ago and they told us they'll know more this evening.'