the cottage, but we always felt
safe in Mammy’s room. I was going out with Séamus, and we got married in 1985 and had our first child, Aisling, in 1986. We decided to move up here to Ahenure, and Jo Jo came with
us. She was about fourteen at the time. Myself and Séamus were just starting out, and we later had three more children. Our children were very close to Jo Jo: she was more like a sister
to them than an auntie. She lived with us until she was about sixteen. I would do it all again in a second if I could. None of us can believe that Jo Jo is gone now; there’s an emptiness
in our hearts that we just can’t fill.
It was Kathleen Bergin who first reported to the Gardaí the fact that her sister was missing, less than twenty-four hours after Jo Jo had vanished. Yet despite the fact
that she had disappeared from the side of a road on a dark night, Kathleen remembers an initial lack of urgency from the Gardaí that she found distressing.
Jo Jo was meant to be at work at Dawson’s pub in Callan on the Friday evening. I remember I got a call from the manager, Tom. He said Mary Cullinane—Jo
Jo’s friend—was with him, and Jo Jo hadn’t arrived for work. Mary then told me about the phone call from Moone. Immediately I knew this was serious. I called a friend of Jo
Jo’s in Carlow, but she hadn’t seen her. I contacted the Gardaí in Callan, and the officer told me Jo Jo was twenty-one and might have decided to go back to Dublin. I called
the Gardaí three times, but I got the same type of response. Eventually I called in to the Garda station. I went up to a garda and said, ‘If there was a bank robbed you’d be
out there with checkpoints.’ In the years since, many gardaí have worked very hard on Jo Jo’s case, but that initial response was so wrong.
It was the following Monday, more than three days after Jo Jo Dullard’s abduction and murder, that the search and appeal for information began in earnest. One senior garda
in the Kilkenny division later revealed that he wasn’t even aware of Jo Jo’s disappearance until the Monday. Vital days were lost during which suspicious activity, such as unusual
digging, went undetected. The search, when it did begin, was extensive; but the feeling of many, including certain gardaí, is that it was all too late. One detective who later worked on the
case believes the delay may have given the killer time to cover his tracks.
There is a feeling among some detectives that the person or persons responsible for killing Jo Jo may have actually been questioned at some stage during the investigation. I
mean the investigation was massive, and it stands to reason that we may well have spoken to the killer during our search. Over eight hundred statements were later taken, and two thousand
questionnaires were completed. A number of men who drove through Moone that night were detected. Some of them gave misleading or evasive answers. We even tracked people down in France and the
USA who had driven through Moone that night, but we ruled them out. But the fact that the case lay dormant for the first few days gave the person responsible time to compose themselves, to
concoct a story, to practise it, maybe even to start believing their own lies. Also, the killer had a clear seventy-two hours to conceal Jo Jo’s body. There are a number of theories about
where Jo Jo’s body may lie. But, given the time the killer had, even a particular theory put forward that she is buried at a certain location in Co. Kerry is a distinct possibility.
Jo Jo’s sister Mary Phelan and her husband, Martin Phelan, believe the answer to what happened to Jo Jo lies close to where she disappeared in Moone. When I met them at
their farmhouse at Grange, between Callan and Kilkenny, they told me they are aware of the identity of a particular person who detectives confirmed made contradictory statements when first
questioned and who was identified as a suspect.
The strain of
safe in Mammy’s room. I was going out with Séamus, and we got married in 1985 and had our first child, Aisling, in 1986. We decided to move up here to Ahenure, and Jo Jo came with
us. She was about fourteen at the time. Myself and Séamus were just starting out, and we later had three more children. Our children were very close to Jo Jo: she was more like a sister
to them than an auntie. She lived with us until she was about sixteen. I would do it all again in a second if I could. None of us can believe that Jo Jo is gone now; there’s an emptiness
in our hearts that we just can’t fill.
It was Kathleen Bergin who first reported to the Gardaí the fact that her sister was missing, less than twenty-four hours after Jo Jo had vanished. Yet despite the fact
that she had disappeared from the side of a road on a dark night, Kathleen remembers an initial lack of urgency from the Gardaí that she found distressing.
Jo Jo was meant to be at work at Dawson’s pub in Callan on the Friday evening. I remember I got a call from the manager, Tom. He said Mary Cullinane—Jo
Jo’s friend—was with him, and Jo Jo hadn’t arrived for work. Mary then told me about the phone call from Moone. Immediately I knew this was serious. I called a friend of Jo
Jo’s in Carlow, but she hadn’t seen her. I contacted the Gardaí in Callan, and the officer told me Jo Jo was twenty-one and might have decided to go back to Dublin. I called
the Gardaí three times, but I got the same type of response. Eventually I called in to the Garda station. I went up to a garda and said, ‘If there was a bank robbed you’d be
out there with checkpoints.’ In the years since, many gardaí have worked very hard on Jo Jo’s case, but that initial response was so wrong.
It was the following Monday, more than three days after Jo Jo Dullard’s abduction and murder, that the search and appeal for information began in earnest. One senior garda
in the Kilkenny division later revealed that he wasn’t even aware of Jo Jo’s disappearance until the Monday. Vital days were lost during which suspicious activity, such as unusual
digging, went undetected. The search, when it did begin, was extensive; but the feeling of many, including certain gardaí, is that it was all too late. One detective who later worked on the
case believes the delay may have given the killer time to cover his tracks.
There is a feeling among some detectives that the person or persons responsible for killing Jo Jo may have actually been questioned at some stage during the investigation. I
mean the investigation was massive, and it stands to reason that we may well have spoken to the killer during our search. Over eight hundred statements were later taken, and two thousand
questionnaires were completed. A number of men who drove through Moone that night were detected. Some of them gave misleading or evasive answers. We even tracked people down in France and the
USA who had driven through Moone that night, but we ruled them out. But the fact that the case lay dormant for the first few days gave the person responsible time to compose themselves, to
concoct a story, to practise it, maybe even to start believing their own lies. Also, the killer had a clear seventy-two hours to conceal Jo Jo’s body. There are a number of theories about
where Jo Jo’s body may lie. But, given the time the killer had, even a particular theory put forward that she is buried at a certain location in Co. Kerry is a distinct possibility.
Jo Jo’s sister Mary Phelan and her husband, Martin Phelan, believe the answer to what happened to Jo Jo lies close to where she disappeared in Moone. When I met them at
their farmhouse at Grange, between Callan and Kilkenny, they told me they are aware of the identity of a particular person who detectives confirmed made contradictory statements when first
questioned and who was identified as a suspect.
The strain of
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