Three years after her disappearance, the senior garda in charge of the Fiona Pender investigation is convinced the mystery will be resolved.
Supt Peter Wheeler of Tullamore said the case is being worked on daily and he is determined it will be brought to a conclusion, no matter how long it takes.
"Our inquiries here are ongoing and Fiona's case is now currently part of the Trace investigation which is looking at a number of cases of missing women and reviewing them," he said.
"That inquiry has thrown up some work for us to do and we have supplied that team with leads we have been working on. The matter is continuing," he said.
He was heartened when a large crowd attended a Mass to mark the third anniversary of Fiona's disappearance in the Church of the Assumption, Tullamore at the end of last month.
The Mass was celebrated to allow locals show solidarity with the Pender family who lost their only daughter when she disappeared on August 22nd/23rd, 1996.
She went missing from the home she shared with her partner, Mr John Thompson, the last person to see the former model and hairdresser, when he left their flat at 11 Church Street, to go to work at 6 a.m.
At the Mass, her mother, Josephine, made a plea to the congregation to help the gardai find her daughter, who had worked as a hairdresser in local salons. "This may jog someone's memory because there is information out there somewhere. We are just hoping for something to flow from that appeal so we can continue the investigation," he said.
He said the greatest barrier is the lack of a crime scene or a body.
A Garda sub-aqua unit recently searched Ballyfin Lake and river, near Mountmellick, just one of many areas searched.
All maternity hospitals in Ireland and Britain were checked for a record of Fiona giving birth to the baby she was pregnant with when she disappeared.
The investigation was extended to Croydon where Fiona and her partner John once worked and Interpol, which has been involved in the case, spoke to Fiona's friends in Britain, Germany, Italy and the US.
Supt Wheeler asked anyone with any information, no matter how trivial they may think it is, to contact Tullamore Garda station at 0506-21305 or 0506 21720 or any Garda station.