Skip to main content

MISSING: FIONA SINNOTT COLD CASE

At the time of her disappearance Fiona Sinnott was living in the rural village of Ballyhitt, Broadway, County Wexford, Ireland, some 120 kilometres south of Dublin City. Fiona was a young single mother, and her daughter Emma was eleven months old at the time of her mother’s disappearance.

19 year old Fiona Sinnott spent the night of Sunday February the 8th 1998 socialising with a group a friends in Butler’s Pub in Broadway Co. Wexford not far from her rented home. Fiona’s friends described Fiona as being happy that night, and in good spirits. However, her friends would later tell Gardai that Fiona was also complaining of pain in one of her arms. Fiona had been the victim of domestic violence in the past and the report of pain in her arm raised the suspicions of Gardai when examining the case.

Also in Butler’s Pub that Sunday night was Fiona’s ex-boyfriend and the father of her child, he did not join Fiona and her friends and spent the night drinking at the bar alone. At roughly midnight, Fiona left Butler’s Pub with her ex-boyfriend and nobody else. Her ex-boyfriend would later tell Gardai that he and Fiona walked the short distance to her home, where he, too, spent the night, but on Fiona’s sofa whilst she slept upstairs in her bedroom. He would also tell Gardai that on the following morning, Monday the 9th of February, Fiona was still complaining of a pain in her arm and wanted to visit a doctor and that she would hitch a lift to the doctor’s office. Fiona’s ex-boyfriend then gave her five pounds and he was picked up by his mother at 9:30am. His mother drove him back to their home, in nearby Coddstown, where their child Emma had spent the previous night.

Fiona never arrived at the doctor’s office, no sightings of her hitch hiking have ever been reported, nor has anyone ever come forward to Gardai stating that they gave Fiona a lift that morning. In the days after Fiona’s disappearance, neighbours reported seeing numerous black bin bags outside of her home in Ballyhitt. When the Gardai searched Fiona’s home and forensically examined it, they discovered no evidence of foul play. However, the investigators were struck by how clean the house was considering the fact that a single mother lived there with her eleven month old daughter. Fiona’s landlord would later tell Gardai that whenever he visited Fiona’s home there would be bits and pieces everywhere, as would be expected in any house with such a young baby.

Fiona’s family would also report the ‘odd’ clean and organised nature of her rented home after her disappearance. A few weeks after Fiona vanished, a local farmer approached Gardai with information that was relevant to the case. The farmer told them that whilst attending to his cattle, he found numerous black bin bags on his property. He opened some of the bags and found some letters addressed to Fiona Sinnott. Unfortunately, when the farmer found this evidence, he was unaware of Fiona’s disappearance. He presumed it to be just another case of illegal dumping, which is a wide spread problem in Ireland, and burnt the black bags. Tragically, no trace or evidence relating to Fiona Sinnott has been found since.

 

Comments

POPULAR POSTS

WOKE: The Trope That Doesn't Work

WOKE - a word we now hear so often used in ridicule of others on social media commentary. But like so many tropes used against others, its user - by the mere act of using it - clearly demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of its true meaning and origin. If anything, its usage, now defines more the user, than the intended reciprocate. And its not a new word by any stretch of 21st Century meaning. It dates back more than 80 years but has only in the past few years reignited its common and increasing usage in everyday English language. ORIGIN - THE WOKE It originally dates back to a comment from an African American United Mine Workers official in 1940 (USA), stating: "Let me tell you buddy. Waking up is a damn sight harder than going to sleep, but we'll stay woke up longer." Think of all the times in exchanges online (primarily social media) that you've been described as 'woke' in a derogatory way. Ask yourselves, have you noticed how often those throwing...

THE VANISHING OF MARY BOYLE

Mary Boyle (born 14 June 1970) was a six-year-old Irish girl who disappeared on the County Donegal-County Fermanagh border on 18th March 1977. To date, her disappearance is the longest missing child case in the Republic of Ireland. The investigation into her disappearance has been beset by allegations of political intervention and police incompetence. While arrests were made over many years, nobody has ever been charged in connection with her disappearance. Mary Boyle was last seen at 3:30 pm on 18 March 1977 near her grandparents' rural farm in Cashelard, near Ballyshannon, County Donegal. The family, including Mary's mother Ann, father Charlie, older brother Paddy, and twin sister Ann, had gone to Mary's maternal grandparents' house on St Patrick's Day from their home in Kincasslagh in The Rosses, further up the coast. They stayed at the grandparents home overnight into the day of her disappearance. In total, there were eleven people at the household gathering, si...

JO JO DULLARD CASE UPDATE: Recent Arrest & Searches

On the morning of November 11th, 2024, Gardai case investigators served an arrest warrant on a man aged 55 under suspicion of the murder of Jo Jo Dullard who disappeared 29 years ago. The man was detained for questioning at Kildare Garda Station under the provisions of section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act 1984. No charges have yet been brought forward and he is the first suspect to be arrested in the case. The Dullard family were made aware of the arrest shortly after 7 am this morning. (He was later released without charge the following day and a file is being prepared for the Irish DPP). Currently gardai are executing two separate search warrants on properties and land located at Ballyhook over the Kildare/Wicklow border. Early Tuesday afternoon, the 55-year-old-man, from a prominent Wicklow political family was released without charge. Gardai believe he was the last person to see Jo Jo Dullard alive and from very early on in the case investigation he was a person-of-interest befor...