Josephine Dullard

Status:

Open

Jurisdiction:

An Garda S Och Na Irish (POLICE)

Missing From:

Moone, County Kildare, Ireland

Summary:

Josephine "Jo Jo" Dullard, born 25 January 1974, disappeared at the age of 21 on 9 November 1995. The 21-year-old was last seen at approximately 11.37pm on November 9th, 1995, in the village of Moone, Co Kildare, while attempting to make her way home to Callan, Co Kilkenny. In 2020, Gardaí upgraded her disappearance to a murder investigation after cold case detectives concluded that she "met her death through violent means".

Vital Statistics

Circumstances of Disappearance:

Jo Jo left her home in Callan at 8.30am on 9 November 1995 to travel by bus to Dublin. She met some friends in Bruxelles Pub on Harry Street, just off Grafton Street, and stayed with them for the afternoon. Jo Jo went to Busárus bus station at approximately 10pm. That evening, she missed her last bus home to Kilkenny and, at 22:00 local time, boarded a bus to Naas in County Kildare, intending to hitchhike home to Callan. Ms Dullard hitched a lift from Naas to the slip road on the M9 motorway at Kilcullen. At about 23:15 she got another lift to the village of Moone, about an hour's drive from her home town. Once in Moone, at 23:37, Ms Dullard made a phone call to her friend, Mary Cullinan. During the call she told Ms Cullinan a car had stopped to offer her a ride and she was planning to accept it. This was the last known interaction she had with anyone. 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. There were further sightings of a woman similar to Jo Jo in Castledermot, Co. Kildare which is 5 miles from Moone at around midnight on the same evening - Thursday 9th November, 1995.

Additional Details:

The following morning, on 10 November 1995, she was reported missing by her sister, Kathleen. Gardaí revealed that Dullard was carrying a black Sanyo portable cassette player with matching headphones on the day she disappeared, and appealed for anyone who might have received one in suspicious circumstances, perhaps as a Christmas gift in 1995, to contact investigating officers. In 2008, the Crimestoppers Trust, Ireland's national freephone crime fighting service, announced it was offering a €10,000 reward for information to assist gardaí in their ongoing investigation into what happened on the night of Ms Dullard's disappearance. On 19 October 2020, almost 25 years on from her disappearance, An Garda Síochána announced it was upgrading the case to that of murder. In 2021 a search was conducted in a woodland in the Usk Little townland of County Kildare in relation to the disappearances of Jo Jo Dullard and Deirdre Jacob, though Gardaí stated that there might be evidence connected with the other missing women. Unusual activity in the area on the night of Deirdre Jacob's disappearance led to the search with the Gardaí also noting that Jo Jo Dullard was last sighted a 10-minute drive away from the search area. In 2020, a witness said he saw a woman running naked and screaming through Moone on the night of Dullard's disappearance. The man stated he was travelling with his boss at the time and his boss left the car to follow the woman but she ran away. The witness stated that his boss then rang the Gardaí from a telephone box and Gardaí stated they would send a car out. Gardaí investigating the disappearance and murder of Josephine "Jo Jo" Dullard arrested a male on suspicion of the murder of Jo Jo Dullard in November 2024. The male, in his 50s, continues to be detained under the provisions of Section 4, Criminal Justice Act 1984 at a Garda station in Co. Kildare. Investigating Gardaí commenced a search operation on open ground at a location in Co. Wicklow near the Wicklow/Kildare border. Although a person of interest was arrested and questioned in November 2024, no one has ever been charged or convicted in relation to Dullard's disappearance. She was the youngest of five siblings and her sister Mary Phelan became a familiar face in media appeals for information about her. Since her disappearance, her sister Mary Phelan, died in 2018, not knowing what happened to her.

Case Last Updated:

Jul 26, 2026