The family of a woman whose body has not been recovered since she went missing in an apparent double drowning tragedy in Co Wicklow in 1988 believes her unidentified remains may lie in a grave in Co Wexford.
They want the remains exhumed for DNA testing in an effort to identify them.
Priscilla Clarke (25), from Ardee, Co Louth, went missing on May 3rd, 1988 at Powerscourt, Enniskerry, Co Wicklow. She was out horse-riding with Lynda Kavanagh, the American-born wife of Irish property tycoon and businessman Mark Kavanagh.
Gardaí believe the two women were swept away in the flooded river Dargle as their horses were crossing the water after days of heavy rain. Ms Kavanagh's remains were found two days later after a massive search.
Ms Clarke's family have identified a grave at Crosstown Cemetery in Co Wexford which contains the remains of three people, including an unidentified woman aged between 25 and 40 years. This woman's skeletal remains were found on Ballinamona Beach, Co Wexford, on December 12th, 1995 and were buried six months later.
Ms Clarke's family believe the remains may be those of Priscilla, who worked as a childminder for the Kavanaghs.
The family was dissatisfied with the initial Garda search , and is unhappy with what they feel is a lack of support from the force in the intervening 19 years.
"It was a very lonely quest at the time with no support from the authorities," said the missing woman's sister, Clare Keane. "My father was sent from one door to another by the gardaí. After a very short period there was effectively no Garda investigation."
The family believes the former state pathologist Prof John Harbison carried out a postmortem on the body buried in Co Wexford but they have been unable to secure a copy of the results.
Clare Keane said she was "shocked" to learn that the Garda has no uniform system of cross- checking all remains discovered against the files of missing persons. "We know the gardaí never even considered that the remains in Wexford could be Priscilla," she told The Irish Times.
The missing woman's other sister, Sr Teresa Clarke, believes an exhumation may bring closure for her family or the family of one of a number of missing women.
"If the grave isn't exhumed we'll spend the rest of our lives wondering is it her," she said.
The family have established that Lee jeans, like those worn by her missing sister, were found on the Wexford remains. A set of car keys for a Volkswagen were found in the pocket. Priscilla had access to a Volkswagen.
Clare Keane says the remains were those of a woman around 5ft 7in, the same height as her sister.
However, the family believe the Volkswagen keys have been lost. Gardaí are unsure of the size of the jeans on the remains. Sections of the original Garda file are also missing. Dental records for the remains are incomplete.
The Clarke family have never had any contact from gardaí before they raised the issue of the grave in Wexford some months ago. A Garda liaison officer has now been appointed.
However, the family's requests for the Wexford grave to be exhumed have not been granted.
In September 1998, the then Garda Commissioner Pat Byrne announced the establishment of Operation Trace to re-examine the cases of missing women.
The Clarke family say that the timing of many of these disappearances means that in the event of the Wexford remains not belonging to Ms Clarke, they might belong to one of these missing women.
These include: Annie McCarrick (26), an American who disappeared in 1993; Imelda Keenan (22), who disappeared in 1994 ; Jo Jo Dullard (21), who went missing in 1995 and Eva Brennan (40), who vanished in 1993 after visiting her parents' Dublin home.
