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The phone box in Moone where JoJo hitched a lift

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The small village of Castledermot 

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Callan Co. Kilkenny JoJo's home town

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A 1990's Toyota Carina model

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A 1990's Ford Sierra

JoJo Dullard was a young Irish woman from the country town of Callan Co. Kilkenny, who by the winter of 1995 had decided to relocate to Kilkenny having spent the previous two years working as a waitress in Dublin City. After working in various pubs throughout the city JoJo along with her friend Mary Cullinane was offered a more secure job waitressing in a local pub in her home town of Callan, this security and familiarity obviously appealed to the 21 year old JoJo at the time.

In the early morning of the 9th of November 1995 JoJo boarded a bus for Dublin City from her native county of Kilkenny. By this time JoJo had already moved back to Kilkenny, but she had to return to Dublin to collect a social welfare payment from a post office in the South Dublin neighbourhood of Harold’s Cross. 

JoJo collected her payment from the post office early that Thursday, which left her at loose end as her bus back to Kilkenny was not due to leave until 6pm. JoJo decided to return to the city centre to visit a pub known as Bruxelles, a pub she had frequented many times whilst living in Dublin, in the hope of seeing some of her friends there. JoJo was delighted to discover that a friend of hers was working behind the bar. They were later joined by an ex-boyfriend of JoJo’s at 2:30pm, and according to retired Garda Detective Alan Bailey JoJo and her ex-boyfriend soon rekindled their flame that afternoon. After having a few drinks JoJo decided to spend the night in Dublin. However, JoJo’s ex-boyfriend’s current girlfriend showed up at Bruxelles a brief argument ensued and JoJo’s ex left with his current girlfriend. This sequence of events had effectively left JoJo stranded in Dublin City as her bus to Kilkenny had long since departed.

For whatever reason JoJo decided not to spend that Thursday night in Dunlin, and would now try and make her way to Kilkenny. She headed to the main bus depot in Dublin City; Busaras, having arrived at the bus depot at 9pm she discovered that the only bus remaining that she could take heading towards Kilkenny was a bus that would end its route at the town of Nass, roughly 65 miles from her home in Callan. JoJo reached the Kildare town of Nass at 10pm that night, the driver of the bus recounted to the Gardi that he woke JoJo when the bus reached Nass and she then departed the bus. By 10pm the town of Nass would have been mostly deserted, however JoJo decided to continue on with her journey home instead of seeking accommodation in the town. She now had no other option but to start walking and attempt to hitch a lift. Luckily she was picked up soon by an elderly man, they offered to take her as far as the town of Kilcullen some ten miles from Nass. This elderly man recounted to the Gardi that he advised JoJo of the dangers of hitch hiking and advised her to seek accommodation for the night in Kilcullen, however JoJo was determined to get home and decided to continue on hitch hiking in Kilcullen. Again similarly to Nass JoJo managed to successfully hitch a lift quickly. This time a much younger man picked JoJo up, he was able to take JoJo as far as the Kildare town known as Moone leaving her some 45 miles from home.

By the time JoJo reached Moone it was 11:30pm, the small town would have been mostly dark and deserted by this stage, JoJo then decided to head to the phone box which would have been one of the few bright lights in the town. At the phone box JoJo decided to call her friend Mary Cullinane, whilst also attempting to flag down any passing cars. JoJo successfully got through to her friend and began informing her about her predicament in getting home, she then started telling Mary about her day in Bruxelles, when suddenly a car started to approach the phone box JoJo asked Mary to hold on as she attempted to hitch a lift from the car, about half a minute later she returned to the phone and informed Mary that she had got a lift and that she will be off. This phone call would be the last time Mary or any of JoJo’s friends or family would have any contact with JoJo.

Despite being widely accepted in public and media circles, Moone may not be the last place JoJo was seen alive. Numerous witnesses from the small village of Castledermot, some 4 miles south of Moone, came forward to the Gardi stating that they had seen a woman matching JoJo’s description walking along the main street of the village close to midnight. The timeframe from the witnesses’ accounts matched with JoJo being driven from Moone to Castledermot between 11:30pm and 11:40pm. A man had spotted a woman matching JoJo's description as he walked into a fast food shop, he told Gardi he observed the woman walking up the main street towards a road that would take her towards Carlow, and this would have been the direction JoJo would have to take if she was heading from Castlederomt to Kilkenny. But, none of the witnesses’ sightings in the village of Castledermot could be fully confirmed and this made the investigation all the more complex.

Roughly a year after JoJo vanished a taxi man from Co. Waterford, roughly 62 miles south of Moone Co. Kildare, came forwarding to Gradi stating that on the night JoJo vanished just outside the small village of Kilmacow Co. Waterford, he spotted a car parked on the side of the road and as he drove by he noticed a man urinating, the taxi driver thought nothing of this until suddenly a young woman matching JoJo’s description bolted out of the car through a side door at the rear of the car and proceeded to run onto to the roadway. The woman was bare foot and appeared to the taxi driver as if she was trying to escape from the two men, as the woman was making her getaway another man emerged and grabbed the women around the waist and dragged her back into the car helped by the first man spotted by the taxi driver. The car then drove away at speed with all three occupants in it.

The taxi driver also recalled that the car was a red Ford Sierra and had English/British registration plates. Again the timeline in relation to travel between Moone/Castledermot Co. Kildare to Kilmacow Co. Waterford is compatible with the time the taxi driver gave to Gardi in relation to his potential sighting of JoJo. Interestingly a woman who was driving through the village of Moone at the time JoJo was there, spotted a woman matching JoJo’s description running from the village’s only phone box into the back seat of a four door car, the witness thought the car may have been a dark coloured Toyota Carina. One thing the witness was sure of was that the woman got into the back seat of the car, suggesting that there was at least two other people in the car at the time. The car the taxi man in Co. Waterford spotted with the distressed woman contained two males and one woman, and was described by the witness as red coloured Ford Sierra a car similar in appearance to that of a Toyota Carina. 

Unfortunately none of the possible sightings and witness accounts led to the whereabouts of JoJo Dullard, and none of JoJo Dullard's friends or family have seen or spoken to her since she called her friend that November night.

Update 

During October 2020 the Gardi upgraded JoJo's case to a murder investigation after victimology and proof of life analysis. An appeal for information on a black Sanyo cassette player that JoJo had in her possession was also made. A year later in October 2021 a report emerged concerning a truck driver who was driving through Moone on the night JoJo disappeared. This individual and his passenger saw a woman with no clothes on running along the main road in Moone screaming and in a distressed state. When the individual approached the woman in an effort to help her she ran away in paniced state. The truck driver later contacted Gardi when he saw the reports concerning JoJo's disappearance, but he was not asked to make a statement in 1995. However, during 2021 he was asked to give the Gardi a statement. As of January 2024 no arrests have been made. 

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A plaque dedicated to JoJo now stands in Moone

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JoJo's sister Mary campaigned tirelessly to find justice for Jojo

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