The family of missing Wexford woman Fiona Sinnott last night said they were "very hopeful" that Garda progress on the case in the past week would result in a prosecution and give them closure.
Mary Sinnott, the missing woman's mother, told The Irish Times that the years since her daughter's disappearance in February 1998 had been very difficult for her family. She always believed Fiona (19) had been murdered and her body concealed somewhere by her killer.
All her family wanted now was for the case to come to a conclusion and to know where her daughter's remains were so they could be given a proper burial.
"Obviously when Fiona first went missing we were devastated," she said at the family home in Bridgetown, Co Wexford.
Fiona was last seen in public at Butler's pub in Broadway near Rosslare, Co Wexford, at closing time on Sunday, February 8th, 1998. She had gone missing for short periods before so her disappearance was not reported to gardaí until February 18th. An exhaustive search and Garda investigation have, until now, found no trace of her.
"After a while you give up hope. I'd say that happened after about six months," said Mrs Sinnott.
"The month after Fiona disappeared was her daughter Emma's first birthday so I suppose when Fiona never got in touch we feared the worst because she wouldn't have missed it for the world.
"My husband Pat died last year. It will be his anniversary later this month. It was very difficult, very sad to see him die without him ever knowing what happened. That was sad for us all. But maybe now in the last week he's telling us something," she said of recent events.
"If we got her body back soon I'm sure it will be very difficult for us. But at least she would have a grave. And then after that, time might heal. At least we would have closure. I am just hoping and praying that that will happen." She believed that some of the suspect's family members and other people close to him had always known what happened to her daughter.
"I don't know how they could have kept it to themselves. I couldn't sleep at night if I knew I had vital information and I hadn't told the guards, I really wouldn't be able to sleep at night."
Fiona's brother, Seamus (34), said being able to bury his sister would bring great comfort, not only to his mother and family, but to the many people who knew and missed Fiona.
"At least we would have a headstone, a grave. It would be somewhere you could go to grieve and then you could turn away and say, she's there in the grave. At least you would know," he said.
Mr Sinnott said while his family always feared the worst for Fiona they never gave up hope that the case could be solved.
"The case was never closed. We always felt that something would come of it. We just didn't think that it was going to take 7½ years. But we always thought that somebody would break," he said.
When Fiona first went missing the gardaí and local people who searched for her had offered the family great support, Mrs Sinnott said. The case had attracted continued publicity since 1998, and this had also been a source of comfort.
"When it is in the papers or on the television or the radio then you know people care," said Fiona's sister, Diane (28). She added that from the beginning her family was convinced Fiona had been killed violently.
"There were people in that bar that night when she was last seen. Somebody must have seen something."
Seamus Sinnott said his family had often thought of the families of other missing women. "They must have been going through what we are. But I would say never give up hope, something might turn up one day."
