On a summer's day in 1998, Deirdre Jacob vanished outside her home in Newbridge, Co. Kildare. She was 18 years old. For her father Michael, every day is a painful reminder, "Every time you drive in this gateway, you ask yourself the same question. What happened here?"
In the 27 years since Deirdre disappeared, the Jacob family has never stopped searching for an answer to the question: what happened their beloved daughter and sister? On this month’s Crimecall, Deirdre’s parents Michael and Bernadette speak about their continuing hopes for justice in the face of despair.
Bernadette Jacob recalls her daughter's love of clothes, fashion and spending time with friends. They vividly remember the final day they saw Deirdre. On 28th July 1998, she was home for the summer holidays after completing her first year of teacher training in St. Mary’s, Twickenham, in England. She was looking forward to her second year of university and was organising accommodation for the new term. This brought Deirdre into Newbridge that day to arrange a bank draft.
Around lunchtime she left her home and walked the 20 minute route into town. CCTV shows Deirdre, bob-length dark hair, with a black satchel on her shoulder, walking purposefully through the town. Her first stop was the AIB bank on the Main Street, then the Post Office. The final piece of CCTV shows her passing the old Irish Permanent Building Society as she left the town centre for her home on the outskirts of the busy Kildare town.
Witnesses would later place her on the road outside the family home. This was the last sighting of Deirdre. Michael stands in the same gateway today, contemplating the unfathomable, "She was here, at her own gate, and to think that something very sinister happened to her somewhere around here."
When Bernadette arrived home later that day, she immediately sensed that something was wrong, "When I reached our front door, straight away I wondered, 'Where is Deirdre’? Because she was to be there. So straight away alarm bells were ringing."
Gardaí began an extensive operation in the local area and beyond, searching forests and rivers with the help of specialist teams. It became one of the biggest searches ever carried out in Ireland. Michael describes those early weeks as like being in ‘free fall’, "Hours go into days, days go into weeks. And that's how it was."
But despite the long-running Garda investigation, no trace of Deirdre has ever been found. The effect on the Jacob family has been profound. Michael reflects on the lifetime since he last saw his daughter:
"Twenty seven years have passed. And there are so many times over those years that you're drawn to the fact that there is a gap in the family group. Photographs being taken and Deirdre should be in them."
Bernadette’s voice carries the heavy weight of all those years, "Our children were the centre of our lives. And now we don't know where one of them is. We don't know what happened to her."
In 2018, on the 20th anniversary of Deirdre’s disappearance, a cold case review led to the case being upgraded from a missing person to a murder investigation. This brought increased resources to the case and renewed Garda appeals for information in recent years. But for now, Michael and Bernadette live without answers, "The case has never advanced on from two or three minutes past 3 o'clock on that July day in 1998" he says.
All Deirdre’s family can do is continue their public appeal in the hope that some new piece of evidence will finally lead to the justice they long for, "It would mean so much for us to know where she is and what happened to her. We hope and we pray for that."
Anyone with information is asked to contact Crimecall on 1800 40 50 60 or Newbridge Garda Station on 045 440 180.
Crimecall, presented by Carla O’Brien, is broadcast on Monday 20th October 9.35pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player
