Heartbreaking letter to missing Fiona from tormented late mum

THE brother of Fiona Pender has released a heartbreaking letter written by his late mother to his missing sister on the anniversary of her disappearance.

The letter, which was read out at Josephine Pender’s funeral last week by Fiona’s friend Emer Condron, described the endless agony she was feeling at her loss.

Fiona Pender, then 25, was seven months pregnant when she vanished on August 22, 1996, having spent the day with her mother shopping for baby clothes. The model and hairdresser was never seen again and her brave mother, Josephine, launched a national campaign to appeal for any information about Fiona’s disappearance.

Mrs Pender, 68, who had suffered with a heart condition and diabetes for the last number of years, passed away on September 13 in her hometown of Tullamore, Co. Offaly, with her son John by her bedside.

In the letter to her daughter, written six years ago on August 22, 2011, Josephine said her heart and arms ‘ache never to have been able to hold and look after your baby’.

She wrote: ‘Dear Fiona, when we lost your brother Mark on 12th June 1995 you said to me “nothing worse can happen to us now, Mam”.

‘We did not know then that 14 months later we would lose you and your baby on 22nd August 1996, and your dad on 31st March 2000 from a broken heart after losing his children.’

John Pender, 34, who is the only surviving member of the Pender family, said he wished to release the letter because he did not want the public or the media to forget his sister.

‘I hope that between myself and my community, we will be able to keep the annual walk for Fiona going, but next year will be a very important walk because it will also be in memory of my sister and my mother.

‘Please keep Fiona and her baby and my mother in your hearts.

‘My mother was a loving, gentle and kind woman who stayed strong and positive and never wished harm on anyone, no matter what came her way.

‘My mother was a hero, she never gave up or gave in looking for my sister. In the face of such heartache, after losing my brother Mark in a road traffic accident in 1995, and my late father Seán who took his own life in 2000 after not being able to cope with losing his children and grandchild, my mother kept fighting, kept hoping and kept searching for Fiona right up until the end.’

John, is now calling for a ‘full Garda review and/or cold-case review’ into his sister’s case.

‘There is only one chief suspect in Fiona’s case, and that has never changed,’ he said.

Shortly after Fiona’s disappearance, Josephine and the gardaí quickly identified a chief suspect who cannot be named for legal reasons.

The man, who later married, has since emigrated and was arrested in 2013 after his wife told gardaí that he had sexually assaulted her and threatened to kill her, allegedly saying: ‘I’ll do to you what I did to Fiona.’

The woman later pointed out on a map where the man claimed he had buried Fiona, and a fullscale excavation began in Capard near Rosenallis, Co. Laois.

However, to Josephine and John’s despair, Fiona and her baby were never found.

‘I would like to thank his wife who reported him to police,’ said John.

‘[She] was brave and strong for coming forward and me and my mother believed her.’

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‘Nothing worse can happen to us’