Missing Persons: Imelda Keenan's niece hits out at garda investigation into her disappearance
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The niece of missing Imelda Keenan has hit out at the garda handling of her aunt’s disappearance saying, “We have been fighting so hard to get this case upgraded to a murder inquiry”.
Regina Kerry was speaking at the National Missing Person’s Day which was held in Croke Park on Wednesday morning.
Imelda Keenan who was 24 years old and from Mountmellick in Co. Laois but living in Waterford City, went missing on January 3, 1994 from her bedsit where she was living with her fiancé.
Gardaí were told that she left there to go and collect her social welfare payments at the post office after washing her hair and making her partner a cup of tea, but she was never seen again. She was reported missing by her brother that evening.
Her family has campaigned long and hard for decades to find out what happened to the young “vibrant woman".
Addressing a crowd of more than 500 people, Ms Kerry launched a scathing on gardaí working on the case at the time saying they stood down their investigation a couple of weeks after Imelda vanished.
She said: “On the tenth anniversary we decided to do our own appeal and go to Waterford and hand out posters on the street, where Imelda was allegedly last seen.
“On that day, I met up with woman by the name of Rosie, and she told me she was a friend of Imelda and that when she went missing, she went to the detective over the case to make a statement, and she was told that he would be in contact with her, but unfortunately this did not happen.
“I was heartbroken to hear this, so I reached out to the detectives to arrange for Rosie to make her statement, 10 years later."
She said there was an appeal put out by the gardaí every year on the anniversary of Imelda’s disappearance.
"Their appeal didn’t give out much information only of what she was wearing what she looked like and where she was allegedly last seen.
“The same appeal was repeated for 28 years before my family and I decided to do our own appeals on all social media platforms and put out all the information that we knew was true, around the time Imelda disappeared."
She said they created a Facebook page in 2013, in memory of Imelda.
"In 2023, I decided to post pictures of people Imelda loved and who were in her life at the time of her disappearance," said Ms Kerry.
"We gathered all the information and arranged a meeting with the detectives. This constantly went on for over a year.
“Gerry [Imelda’s brother] and I had to listen to stories that we never heard before about Imelda. So, this takes up to this year, 2024, her 30th year being classed as a missing person.
“The loved ones of a missing person should not be burdened with the responsibility of arranging statements or tracking down individuals to uncover what happened. This is a task that should fall to the Department of Justice.”
In October 2024, Imelda’s family was invited to Waterford garda station and were told that experts were being drafted in to re-examine the evidence in the case.
“This is a significant step,” said Ms Kerry.
“We remain hopeful that will bring us closer to understanding what happened to Imelda all those years ago.”
Frank O’Neill whose brother Jimmy has been missing from his home in Waterford since December 15, 1947 backed calls by other families who want a more “robust and resourced department” for missing people.
“It is important for families to have regular and robust communication with the gardaí,” he said.
“People don’t realise the distress it can cause a family when someone goes missing.
"I have been searching for Jimmy since I was in my 20s, and you simply can’t let it go, and we need more resources for this whole area."
Gerry Bradley who is the brother of Alan Bradley from Co Kildare who went missing on November 18, 1999, also spoke at the event.
“He was a colourful character,” he said. “He loved to play the banjo and loved the ideals of eco warriors and was involved in the Glen of the Downs protest. He added:
We became used to Alan heading off on his travels.
“And when he hadn’t returned on Thursday November 18, 1999, we were not unduly worried for a number of days.
“However, after checking his usual haunts, we began to get apprehensive for his safety and we informed the gardaí.”
On St Stephen’s Day 1999, a neighbour reported seeing Alan on the road that day, near to his parents’ home.
“Was it Alan who returned to clear up a few loose ends?” asked his brother. “We never got to the bottom of it.”
He said a year after Alan disappeared, his bank told the family there was a withdrawal of money from Alan’s account on November 19, 1999 on Upper William Street Limerick.
“Had we been able to obtain that information from his bank in the days and weeks after his disappearance who knows where we would be now with Alan’s case?” he said.
Mark Deely is the brother of Trevor, who went missing in Dublin after a Christmas work party 24 years ago, on December 8, 2000.
“The years have gone by, and we are still looking for information,” he said.
He also encouraged people to look at the CCTV images of his brother leaving his office on the night he went missing.
“Just google Trevor Deely from that night. There is a character lurking in the background up against the wall and gate, he is the only individual we haven’t yet identified all this time later.
“It is one thing we would definitely like to know.”
Another speaker was Cork City Missing Persons Search and Recoverysearch co ordinator, Chris O'Donovan, who said he wanted to explain to families about the work they do.
“We respond to searches nationwide,” he said. “We are completely voluntary, and our funding is totally reliant on public donations.
“We search for missing persons on land and water and our services are completely free of charge to the families and we are on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year.
“Unfortunately, our volunteers have been called out far too often in recent years,” Mr O'Donovan added.
He said his volunteers are “highly qualified” in land and water search techniques and drone services.
“We conduct weekly sweeps of the River Lee and during these searches we have found and recovered persons that were not even reported missing.
“We ensure that we are also aware of what is happening on the river we work closely with the gardaí civil defence, coastguard, and other voluntary and state agencies to bring closure to the families of the missing.”