Deirdre Jacob

Her parents are Michael and Bernadette Jacob and she was born on 14 October 1979.[4][2]

At the time of her disappearance, she had completed her first year as a student teacher at St Mary's University, Twickenham, United Kingdom.[1]

Deirdre was last seen about 3pm on 28 July 1998.[5] She had gone to the Newbridge branch of Allied Irish Banks to get a bank draft to pay for student accommodation at the university, then went to the post office to post the bank draft.[5] She also visited her grandmother, who owned a shop.[4]

The last sighting of her was close to her house on Barretstown Road.[6][3]

At the time of her disappearance she wore a dark T-shirt with white shoes and was carrying a black bag with a yellow Caterpillar Inc logo.[1] The bag has never been found.[1][7]

Deirdre's parents have never been able to move on and still hope that someone with information on their daughter's disappearance will come forward.[4] They have appealed to the public for information several times over the years.[5][4][7]

In 2016 her parents said that there was not as strong a link between their daughter's disappearance and convicted rapist Larry Murphy as was often supposed.[8] Gardaí were never able to place Murphy in Newbridge the day she disappeared.[8] The only connection found was a piece of paper with Larry Murphy's name and phone number among the belongings of Deirdre's maternal grandmother after the latter's death.[8] She had owned a shop in Newbridge and Murphy had left his contact details with her grandmother as he was making wooden children's toys, but this was years before Deirdre's disappearance.[8]

In July 2018, on the 20th anniversary of her disappearance, her father called for a dedicated missing-persons unit to be set up.[9] Her parents were satisfied that the Gardaí in Kildare were doing everything possible to locate their daughter, but that a dedicated unit would help investigations into missing persons cases.[9]

By 2018 Gardaí had conducted 3,200 lines of inquiry and taken 2,500 witness statements.[3]

The case was reclassified as murder because of new information and a review of the case.[1] Although Gardaí did not reveal the new information, they said there was a definite line of inquiry.[3] In October 2018 Gardaí stated that they had 'significant' new leads in the murder probe and identified Larry Murphy as 'a person of interest'.[10] Her family still live in Newbridge and although they knew the reclassification of her disappearance as murder was to happen they still found it heart-wrenching and shattering to hear the language of a murder investigation used about their daughter's disappearance.[3]

• Lists of people who disappeared
• Ireland's Vanishing Triangle