GARDA TEAMS will this morning resume their searches of a wooded area outside Mountrath, Co Laois, where a makeshift memorial cross has been found with the name of missing Tullamore woman Fiona Pender handwritten on it.
Ms Pender vanished on August 22nd, 1996. The crude wooden cross, measuring about 0.75m (2.5ft) high and bearing the words "Fiona Pender RIP", was found by walkers in the Monicknew woods, in the parish of Camross by the Slieve Bloom mountains, on Sunday evening.
Informed Garda sources said the date of Ms Pender's disappearance was also scrawled on the back of the cross, but other details were not released publicly to alleviate any distress experienced by Ms Pender's mother, Josephine, and her brother, John.
Two excavations were carried out yesterday. Detectives and crime scene personnel hand-dug sites using trowels, at a patch of ground measuring about three metres by three metres (10ft by 10ft).
Part-time model and hairdresser Ms Pender (25) was pregnant when she went missing from the flat she shared with her partner almost 12 years ago. Her mother Josephine Pender (58) said she was shocked when she was informed of the latest development, thinking this to be "the real deal" while her son John said it might be an act of mischief and was a "bit angry", she said.
"I was in shock when I was told about a tip-off about the new search on Monday. I also thought somebody may have left it there to say something, to bring it back in to prominence. I really hope Fiona is there and we can bring it to a conclusion."
A Garda spokesman said officers were "not hugely hopeful" of a significant find, but were taking the new piece of evidence and the search very seriously.
Some 20 gardaí, comprising detectives from Portlaoise and Tullamore, divisional search teams from Laois-Offaly, and divisional and national crime scene units have been involved in the investigation, 9km (5.6 miles) from Mountrath. Gardaí, operating under the direction of Chief Supt David Sheahan of Laois-Offaly, dug about one metre into the ground after two cadaver-sniffer dogs had worked on the soil.
It is thought the cross was placed on the spot "relatively recently". The midlands trail area is very popular with hill walkers, especially at weekends. The cross was sent to Garda headquarters on Monday to be technically examined for clues that would allow officers trace the identity of the person(s) who erected it.
The car park that leads into the Coillte forest was the scene of a murder in December 2000, when Susan Prakash (28) was beaten to death with a wheelbrace. A Co Laois farm labourer was jailed for life in 2003 for the murder of the young mother at the picnic spot.
Garda spokesman Supt Kevin Donohue said the cross was first seen by a couple on Sunday and was placed just off a walkway.
Shortly after Ms Pender's disappearance in 1996, a Garda subaqua unit searched Ballyfin lake and river near Mountmellick. For her mother, life "gets harder as the years go on, because you get more worn down and your mind is racing all the time".
She desperately needed closure and it was particularly difficult, "because when there is no grave, it is harder to come to terms" with it.
For most of yesterday, gardaí dug up forest ground hoping to unearth, at the very least, a fresh lead. Curious locals also came, with one registering his disgust about the possibility that the cross's erection may be a "hoax".