Taoiseach to raise case of vanished Jean with Portuguese prime minister
Investigation into woman missing for three years is ‘unacceptable’
TAOISEACH Leo Varadkar is to raise the case of missing Irishwoman Jean Tighe with Portuguese prime minister António Costa after her family criticised the handling of the inquiry.
Ms Tighe was aged 38 at the time she walked out of her hostel in the Portuguese resort of Parede with an unknown man on July 13, 2020 – and vanished without a trace.
It took over three years for Portuguese police to place her on a missing-persons list, leaving her family ‘distraught’, a TD has said.
The Cavan woman had reportedly told a worker at the hostel that she was going to meet a Brazilian friend, and was seen leaving with her handbag.
Now, nearly four years since her disappearance, her family has pleaded with the Government to urge its Portuguese counterparts to conduct a more thorough probe into what happened to her.
Mr Varadkar has said he intends to bring up the case with Portugal’s PM next month.
Fianna Fáil TD Brendan Smith
‘This State must show it cares’
has said it is ‘totally unacceptable’ that it has taken three years for Portuguese police to add Jean to a missing-persons database.
He called on the authorities in Portugal to answer the ‘legitimate’ questions of the family, who he described as ‘distraught’.
Speaking in the Dáil this week, the Cavan-Monaghan TD said: ‘I have made numerous representations to the Departments of Foreign Affairs and Justice to stress the absolute necessity of ensuring proper and adequate searches are undertaken to locate Jean.
‘It took an inordinate and totally unacceptable time for the Portuguese police authorities to put Jean’s name on the missing-persons database.
‘It was clear from early on that modern investigative and search tools were not used in the search.
‘I have called repeatedly for an investigation into Jean’s disappearance that is absolutely comprehensive and thorough.’
He said the ‘least our authorities can do is to act with urgency’, adding: ‘We have a young woman who is missing and a very distraught family, friends and community. This State, by its actions, must show that it cares.’
In response, the Taoiseach said: ‘I really feel for the family concerned and I know the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs [Micheál Martin] is aware of this case and has taken action on it.
‘I know our embassy and our staff on the ground in Lisbon are doing all they can.’
He continued: ‘The Portuguese police must answer as to why it took so long to have her registered as a missing person on its administrative database.
‘The family have not received replies from Portuguese authorities as to whether they requested Jean’s bank account records or whether they sought her Facebook and Instagram social media accounts from Meta as part of their investigations.
‘These are important and indeed essential investigative and search tools nowadays.’
The Fine Gael leader added that the Irish Government must do all it can to ‘insist’ that the Portuguese authorities answer these important questions.
‘What we’ve witnessed to date is totally unacceptable,’ Mr Varadkar commented.
‘This investigation must be absolutely comprehensive and thorough. We want to see Jean back with her loving family, who are distraught with the very difficult situation they have been put through over the past three years.’
Jean’s sister, Leona Tighe, previously spoke to journalist Pandora Sykes nearly three years to the day since her sibling went missing. Speaking on the podcast ‘The Missing’ last summer, Leona discussed the nightmare of trying to get the Portuguese authorities to take their case seriously.
After reporting the disappearance in Ireland, gardaí sent a report to Interpol along to the Portuguese police. But trying to get information from a police force in a different country was nearly impossible, according to Ms Tighe. She said: ‘We sent a litany of emails, phone calls. We would get terrible responses.’
She added: ‘I sent through the information to verify I was who I was, and [made sure] everything was above board… and they would say, “Oh, your sister’s gone off to start her own life”.’
The family’s attempts to gain access to Jean’s online activity were also in vain. ‘If you submit a request for information with the case number and your police stamp [then] Meta, Facebook, Google, Instagram will release the information,’ said Ms Tighe.
‘I met people who are in similar situations and they said you don’t have to go to court or anything like that [to get that information].’ However, she added that ‘I asked for that to be done and it hasn’t been done’.
She continued: ‘My sister was on [dating site] Match.com. I would’ve thought that that would’ve been the biggest point of information [for the police]. So the fact that none of that information has been requested is terrible because I feel that that’s huge.’
After months of trying to liaise with the Portuguese police, the Tighe family made the decision to hire a private investigator.
‘He did a good, thorough investigation,’ added Leona.
‘And he was able to tell me that my sister left the hostel on the afternoon of Monday, July 13 with her handbag on her person… and that Jean left with a Brazilian man.
‘Now, I think that’s huge information, and she was never seen after that again.’
‘Your sister’s gone to start her own life’