Josephine Dullard has been missing since 11.30 p.m. on Thursday, 9th November, 1995. At precisely that time, Jo Jo phoned her friend from a phone box in Moone, Co. Kildare. This was the last time anyone heard from her. Jo Jo told her friend that she was hitching a lift from Moone to her home in Callan, Co. Kilkenny.
A short time later a woman answering Jo Jo’s description was seen leaning in the back door of a dark coloured Toyota Carina type car. The driver or occupants of this Toyota Carina type car have never came forward or been traced. There were further sightings of a woman similar to Jo Jo, thumbing for a lift in Castledermot, Co. Kildare, which is 5 miles from Moone at around 11:55pm on the same evening – Thursday 9th November, 1995, which would indicate that she did get a lift from Moone at around 11:40pm.
When she never reached her destination, JoJo’s family became concerned and reported her missing to the police. Gardai received reports from the first two drivers who gave JoJo a lift – one from outside the Garda Station in Naas to Kilcullen, and the next from Kilcullen to Moone. The driver who left her in Moone, says he left her at the phonebox there, which was well lit-up and where she intended to call her friend, but the driver or occupants from Moone to Castledermot have never came forward.
Despite an extensive search of the area – there was no sign of Jo Jo and there was no sign of a struggle along the roadside in Moone. Detectives vigorously pursued the Toyota Carina car and although nothing came of this, it continues to be a major line of inquiry to this day. In February 1997, fifteen months after JoJo’s disappearance, info came to the Gardaí that she might have been taken, against her will, a further 15 miles south, as far as Co.Waterford.
A taxi driver contacted the Gardaí reporting that at about 1:20am on the morning of 10th November 1995 he was driving along the main road at Kilmacow, 3 miles north of Waterford, when he saw a red car, with English number-plates parked at the side of the road. He said that one man was urinating beside the car and suddenly a woman ran from the left-hand rear door of the car towards the front. She was bare-foot and seemed distressed. Then a second man appeared from the back of the car, and he followed the woman, grabbed her by the hair, got her in a bear-hug and then dragged her back to the car. They then took off in the direction of Waterford.
The taxi driver said that this all happened in a matter of seconds as he was driving past the car. The Gardai believe these men to be Irish. A further witness report outlines the story of a girl matching Jo Jo’s description who was seen in apparent distress, also in Waterford around 2/2:30am that same night. This deeply disturbing report has never been resolved.
In 1999, after he was sentenced to life imprisonment for the rape, torture and murder of Phyllis Murphy in 1979, ex-Army man John Crerar was investigated in relation to the disappearance of JoJo Dullard, as well as a number of other missing girls. Crerar had a background of sexual molesting and sexual assault and experts convinced that he had killed more than once. The night after JoJo went missing, Crerar’s vehicle was spotted outside a disused quarry at the back of the Aga Khan’s stud on the Curragh. The gates of the quarry were opened and the vehicle’s lights were on. On a number of other occasion’s Crerar was seen in the grounds of the quarry digging and burning material.
Since his conviction for rape and attempted murder in 2000, Larry Murphy has also been questioned by senior Gardai in relation to several of the missing girls including Jo Jo Dullard. It was suggested that the route he took over the N9 on the night he abducted a woman in Carlow, was close to both Moone and Castledermot where JoJo was travelling five years earlier, and maybe he was responsible for her disappearance also. However, investigations are inconclusive and Murphy insists he knows nothing about Jo Jo or any of the missing women.
A number of other men have been questioned in regards to JoJo’s disappearance, and in fact nine people, including a number of women, were formally arrested for questioning by detectives from Operation Trace investigating a number of crimes, including the murder of JoJo Dullard. Two of the men questioned are members of a criminal gang from Waterford – they are believed to have been socialising in Dublin on the Thursday afternoon and evening of JoJo’s disappearance.
Detectives suspect they were travelling through Moone and Castledermot later that night – they deny any knowledge of JoJo Dullard even though the Gardaí received certain information that outlined in clear detail an allegation that these two men had abducted JoJo and killed her. The mystery remains. Jo Jo’s family fear the worst and dearly want her remains returned to them, and her sister’s Kathleen and Mary firmly believe that the person who murdered Jo Jo will kill again.
The Jo Jo Dullard Memorial Trust was established in 1998, set up by her sister Mary Phelan and her husband Martin Phelan with the assistance of TD John McGuinness. Together, they have campaigned for years for the establishment of a specialist Missing Persons Unit in Ireland. During her tireless campaign, Mary Phelan organised a Missing Person’s Day on 26th May 2002. To mark the occasion, a National Monument for Missing People was unveiled in the grounds of Kilkenny Castle. A small monument to commemorate Jo Jo, stands beside the phone box in Moone.
CRACKING CRIME WAS PRODUCED BY STIRLING FOR RTÉ TELEVISION.