Just like the road which leads from the bustle of Newbridge's town centre to the home of Ms Deirdre Jacob in quiet countryside a mile away, the Garda investigation into the young woman's disappearance appears to have come to a dead end.
Ms Jacob walked along this route a week ago yesterday, chatting with friends on the way home. Beyond the housing estates, the Liffey and the grandeur of Newbridge College, the Barrettstown Road narrows into a country lane, twisting past a small evangelical church into dark tree-lined solitude. It was here that Ms Jacob was last seen, at about 3 p.m. on July 28th.
The Garda is "baffled" by her disappearance, which is considered "totally out of character".
Before a friend of Ms Jacob had retraced her last movements, Insp Sean Lavin conceded yesterday there were no new developments in the case and renewed his appeal to the public for fresh information.
A student teacher in Britain, Ms Jacob (18) had just returned from a weekend with friends in Cavan.
Mr Michael Jacob describes his daughter as "cheerful and outgoing", and the broad smile that looks out from her photograph appears to confirm this.
Dozens of neighbours and friends have joined Civil Defence teams, the Garda sub-aqua unit and sniffer dog teams in the search for clues into her disappearance. But intensive combing of the fields, hedgerows and rivers in a 31/2-mile radius has failed to turn up any clues.
Less welcome helpers have also offered their services, such as clairvoyants who have claimed to know her whereabouts. But their testimony has proved vague and often contradictory.
In the town centre, posters relating Ms Jacob's disappearance stand in sombre contrast to the "Welcome Home Kildare" banners erected after the county won its first Leinster GAA football championship in 42 years at the weekend.
Many volunteer helpers forsook the match and last Sunday's celebrations to stay with the search.
Yesterday was children's allowance day at the local post office, and a queue of mothers and children snaked out of the building. A week earlier, video cameras showed Ms Jacob sending a £180 sterling bank draft to pay for a flat she plans to share next year with other Irish students attending her college in Britain.
The postmaster, Mr John Normile, says An Post has offered to distribute leaflets seeking information about Ms Jacob's case to 6,000 local homes.
Locals say the Jacobs are a quiet and reserved family, inclined to keep to themselves. Nonetheless, they have strong links with the area. Deirdre's uncle farms next door and her grandmother runs a sweet and toy shop, O'Grady's, on High Street. This was closed yesterday, its display of toy guns and tin whistles kept firmly under wraps.
For yesterday's reconstruction, a friend of the missing teenager traced her last-known movements. At about lunchtime, she visited her grandmother's shop on High Street.
At about 2.20 p.m. she appeared on the closed-circuit television in the AIB bank nearby. Ten minutes later she visited the post office, before walking home.
She was seen talking to a friend near the pedestrian crossing, and then observed a number of times on her way back home, the last about 300 yards from her gate at about 3 p.m.
Ms Jacob is described as 5ft 2in to 5ft 3in in height, of slim build, with dark brown hair not quite shoulder-length, and grey/green eyes.
When last seen she was wearing navy jeans, Nike white runners with some blue, a navy polo shirt with white on the collar and short sleeves. She may have been wearing a navy sweatshirt with the Nike logo on the front, with a beige colour and a red stripe on the edge. The black bag she was wearing carried a distinctive CAT logo in yellow on the flap.
Gardai are still anxious to talk to a young woman of similar build seen walking at the Hawkfield Bog about a mile from Ms Jacob's home at about 5 p.m. on the day she disappeared.
Anyone with information is asked to contact gardai at Newbridge, telephone (045) 431212 or the Garda confidential number 1800-666111.
