Fiona’s flat was tiny but she kept it lovely. Now it’s just sad and eerie
Fiona Pender’s mother reveals the torment she has suffered every day for 17 years
THIS is the tiny bedsit where Fiona Pender spent her last hours before she vanished without a trace almost 17 years ago.
The mother-to-be lived in flat No.1 on 11 Church Road in her hometown of Tullamore, Co. Offaly, for several months before she disappeared – never to be found.
Fiona, 25, was looking forward to the birth of her first child, whom she believed was a girl.
On August 22, 1996, the hairdresser and part-time model was here in this flat and was in good form and looking forward to giving birth. She had spent that day shopping for baby clothes with her mother Josephine. The following day, Fiona was gone. This exclusive photograph shows her bedsit, which is now bare. At the time, Fiona lived here with the father of her baby, local man John Thompson.
The room was examined and cleared out by gardaí who tried to piece together her last known moments.
‘I don’t hate anyone. I just want my Fiona back’
A pre-Celtic Tiger flat, it was typical of those that first-time home leavers were renting at the time. It has a tiny shower, sink and toilet in an en-suite towards the back of the room.
There is a kitchenette and table and chairs in the main room opposite the bed where Fiona slept.
A source said: ‘Fiona was setting out on a journey to be independent. She had this place lovely. She had large cushions on the bed and pretty bed clothes. She had great taste.
‘It’s a sad place and eerie, because this is the last place she stayed before she went missing.’
Speaking to the MoS, Fiona’s mother Josephine said she could forgive whoever took Fiona if they’d only tell her where she is.
‘If I could sit down with the person, I’d say, “I could forgive you if you gave me back Fiona and her baby.”
‘A trial means nothing to me,’ she said. ‘I don’t care about anyone being punished. I don’t hate anyone. I’m just existing… I’m not living.
‘Her baby was due on October 20 – she would be in secondary school. Everything reminds me of Fiona. She’s there all day, every day. We were great pals. I have cried every day for the last 17 years. It’s like it happened today.’
Josephine’s family has been plagued by tragedy. Just 14 months before Fiona went missing, her brother Mark was killed in a car crash. In April 2000, Fiona’s father Seán, 50, took his own life.
‘I felt some relief for my husband after he died because he wasn’t living and he was an awful lot worse than me,’ said Josephine.
‘The family has just stood still since Fiona and the baby
‘This is not getting easier. I’m so tired’
disappeared. She would have made a fantastic mother; she was a great cook, she was bright, she had it all.
‘I still have my son John who is 30 but we are in limbo. At least we were able to bury Mark and Seán. The only thing we can do for Fiona is go to the grave put her picture on it and put on a few angels and pray for her with her daddy and her brother.’
Josephine has kept the baby clothes she and Fiona bought during her pregnancy.
‘I couldn’t get rid of those. Fiona’s picture is on the fireplace and I talk to her all the time.
‘People say I’m a strong woman but I don’t see that myself. I never thought it would go on this long, there’s just no closure. Things are just not getting better; I feel weaker, I’m so tired.
‘I’m in an eternal pain. I’m on antidepressants and sleeping tablets.
‘Sometimes I hear of people dying from a disease and I think, “I wish that was me,” but I can’t leave my son. I know when I go I’ll have Mark, Seán, Fiona and the baby waiting for me and that’s a lovely thought. If I didn’t have my faith and my son John I wouldn’t be here.
‘I can have a laugh and joke but later I feel guilty for enjoying myself.
‘There are people who have information. Just make an anonymous call or put a note in my door. Do something.’