The Garda Commissioner, Mr Pat Byrne, has ordered the setting up of a special detective unit to examine afresh cases of missing and murdered women, and to see if there is a serial killer in this State.
The move has been prompted by the disappearance on July 19th of Ms Deirdre Jacob (19), a student teacher last seen walking near her home in Newbridge, Co Kildare.
The Jacob investigation is now one of seven such disappearances which, the Commissioner said, have become the "number one item" on his force's agenda.
Mr Byrne conceded yesterday that although Ms Jacob's case is officially a "missing persons" one, it is feared she has been murdered and her body secretly buried.
Yesterday it was learned that a man, believed to be a commercial traveller from Co Fermanagh, phoned Shannonside Northern Sound, a radio station in Cavan, claiming to have given a woman matching Ms Jacob's description a lift to Carrickmacross from Clane, Co Kildare, on the day she went missing.
The caller said he remembered the young woman appeared to be under stress. He also remembered that she was wearing a black skirt and white top which reminded him of someone working as a waitress, he told reporter Ann Norris.
The woman was carrying a black sports shoulder-bag bearing the logo CAT. In hindsight, he added that he found it peculiar that a young girl would want to hitch the 70 miles to Carrickmacross. However, she told him that "she had friends there".
A caller gave similar information to the Leinster Leader last week.
Mr Byrne - who did not refer to these phone calls - revealed that detectives investigating the case - led by Assistant Commissioner Mr Tony Hickey - had already begun examining details of other similar cases.
These included the disappearances of US student Ms Annie McCarrick (26) in the Dublin mountains in March 1993; Ms Josephine "Jo Jo" Dullard (20) from outside Castledermot, Co Kildare, on November 9th, 1995; Ms Fiona Pender (25), who was seven months pregnant, from Tullamore, Co Offaly, on August 23rd, 1996; Ms Ciara Breen (17) from Dundalk on February 12th, 1997, and Ms Fiona Sinnott (19), who disappeared after leaving a pub in Broadway near Rosslare, Co Wexford, this February 8th. Mr Byrne said there would be a "specific focus on these cases because we have no evidence that they are alive at this stage. We do assume they are dead. We must assume they are victims of crime whether it is murder or manslaughter."
He went on: "We have no bodies, which means that we have no crime scene and that in itself is a tremendous disadvantage. They all have that common characteristic. We want to find out if they were enticed or if they were forced from where they were last seen.
"We as police must consider every possibility. It is unclear whether they were killed by one person or more. This is not about raising hope for the relations of these girls. It is the number one item on our agenda."
Asked during a visit to the Garda College in Templemore, Co Tipperary, if the gardai suspected the existence of a serial killer, he said: "It is an aspect that is being considered. We have to find out whether two or three of these murders are related."
The Commissioner said he was setting up a detective team of five or six officers under the direction of a senior officer of deputy or assistant commissioner rank to re-examine all the cases.
He said such re-investigations were commonplace in the United States where they were known as "cold case" studies where officers not involved in initial investigations re-examine evidence to see if anything was missed and if there were links to other crimes.