Search Of Quarry On Kildare-Wicklow Border To Continue This Week In Relation To Murders Of Jo Jo Dullard And Deirdre Jacob

Monday, 22 June 2026 09:27

By Daniel Maher

There is strong garda suspicion that evidence is buried there.

The search of a disused quarry on the Kildare-Wicklow border will continue this week as part of investigations into the murders of Deirdre Jacob and Jo Jo Dullard.

According to the Irish Independent, there is strong garda suspicion that evidence is buried there.

The quarry was excavated in February using heavy machinery and diggers in an operation estimated to cost tens of thousands of euro, according to one garda source.

A fresh excavation and forensic search of a second large area of open ground on the site of the former quarry began on Monday and is expected to continue for at least another week.

Ms Dullard (21) went missing from Moone in Co Kildare on November 9, 1995, on her way home to Callan, Co Kilkenny, after socialising in Dublin. It was upgraded from a missing person’s case to a murder inquiry in 2020.

Ms Jacob disappeared on 28 July 1998, aged 18. She was last seen crossing the road towards the entrance to her home at Roseberry, Newbridge, Co Kildare. The investigation was upgraded to a murder inquiry in 2018.

Larry Murphy, a convicted rapist and attempted murderer from Baltinglass, Co Wicklow, who currently lives in London, is a suspect for the murder of Ms Jacob and a person of interest in Ms Dullard’s disappearance.

The former quarry in the Castleruddery area of west Wicklow has been disused for many years and, at one point more than two decades ago, was used as a dumping ground.

The site was first searched in early 1999 by gardaí with Operation Trace, the specialist unit set up to examine the disappearances of six women in the Leinster region.