'We do it to remember her': annual Fiona Pender walk and run takes place in Tullamore

THE annual walk and run in memory of missing Tullamore woman Fiona Pender took place this morning as renewed calls were made for information about her disappearance.

Twenty-five-year-old Fiona has not been seen since August 22, 1996 and despite several searches and an extensive garda investigation, no trace of her has ever been found.

On Sunday morning friends and relations of Fiona gathered at a monument in her honour on the bank of the Grand Canal in Tullamore close to where she grew up.

The Fiona Pender Memorial Walk and Run followed the route of Fiona's Way along the canal in a loop and participants listened to a short tribute and prayer from one of the organisers, Marie White, before setting out.

Ms White said the event remembered not just Fiona (pictured below), but her late mother Josie too, “who campaigned long and hard for her daughter”.

“It's really a community effort and it's the best of community. We remember Josie, as well as Fiona and her baby.”

Ms White said the annual event keeps Fiona's memory alive and might one day lead to a breakthrough in unlocking the mystery of where her remains are buried. A hairdresser, she was seven-and-a-half months pregnant when she disappeared.

“We do it to remember her. It's like what's on the [parish] bulletin every Sunday, [asking people] to remember Fiona, it's always out there. And it's important to keep it out there.”

She added: “You never know, if somebody reads about it or sees something it might inspire somebody to give some information.”

She said John, younger brother of Fiona, and designer of the stone memorial on the canal bank, was the last remaining member of the family.

“John is left there now, and it would be great, even for Josie, if Fiona was found and got a decent burial.

“I was friendly with Josie and Fiona was actually my hairdresser. I was pregnant the same time she was pregnant so both of our children would have been the same age. It's sad for everybody, it's a tragedy and to try and just get closure on it, that's all we want.”

She thanked all involved in ensuring the walk and run took place each year and acknowledged the work of everyone who funded the monument.

“It's a great tribute to Fiona that all her friends are still interested and still care and are still doing their best to keep her in everybody's memory.”

A posy of flowers was left at the memorial on the canal bank to Ashling Murphy, the 23-year-old teacher who was killed there in January last year.

Gardai continue to treat the Fiona Pender case as an unsolved murder and despite arrests being made in 1996, no charges were ever brought.

Tragedy first hit the Pender family when Fiona's other brother Mark was killed in a motorcycle accident in 1995.

Fiona was living in a flat in Church Street and looking forward to the birth of her baby when she disappeared and her father Sean died tragically at home in 2000.

Fiona's mother Josephine made public appeals for information and said she believed her daughter was murdered and the body buried.

She believed she knew the man who killed Fiona and right up to the time of her own death in 2017 she always hoped her remains would be found.

She said of the killer: “He destroyed all of us. He didn't just destroy Fiona, he destroyed every member of the family.”

Anyone with any information about Fiona Pender's disappearance is asked to contact the gardai in Tullamore 05793-27600 (from abroad 00-353-5793-27600) or phone the Garda Confidential Free Phone line on 1800 666111, or any garda station.