Family of missing Imelda Keenan hope plans to develop Waterford car park site could offer clues

The parcel of land, at Bolton Street in Waterford city, is close to the area where 22-year-old Ms Keenan disappeared more than 30 years ago.

Her family believe she was murdered and her body, or evidence related to her killing, was buried at Bolton Street car park, where construction work was taking place at the time.

The parcel of land is among several that were recently earmarked for ownership transfer to the Land Development Agency (LDA) to facilitate the building of up to 3,300 homes nationwide.

“We are hoping to get more information about the plans,” said Ms Keenan’s niece, Gina Kerry. “We understand that the area is close to what is known locally as the Viking triangle, so if there is construction work involving digging, there will have to be an archaeologist on site.

“It’s like a free dig for us really because we have had a question mark over Bolton Street car park for many years and this could maybe yield something or rule it out all together.”

Ms Kerry said Ms Keenan’s family had been directed to the car park in 2011 as an area of interest because construction work was being carried out there at the time of Ms Keenan’s disappearance.

“I have asked gardaí to do a dig there, but they haven’t. They need concrete evidence to do something like that. If this goes ahead, we will be watching with interest,” she said.

Ms Keenan, from Manor Road, Mountmellick, Co Laois, went missing on January 3, 1994, after leaving her flat in William Street, Waterford, which she shared with her fiance.

Bolton Street car park is minutes away from William Street.

Early last year, a woman who knew Ms Keenan in the early 1990s contacted gardaí with details about a number of frightening incidents involving the young woman that took place in Waterford before her disappearance.

The witness, who recently gave a formal statement to gardaí, first met Ms Keenan in 1990. She moved from the Waterford area before Ms Keenan’s disappearance and realised she had vanished only after watching a TV programme on Ireland’s missing women earlier this year.

On the day she disappeared, Ms Keenan told her fiance she was going to the post office to collect her dole payment. She washed her hair, gave her partner a cup of tea, did her makeup and went out. She said she would not be long and mentioned she had to get cat litter. She walked out the door at 1.30pm, but did not take her bag with her.

A witness said she saw Ms Keenan walking across William Street. The witness was driving from the quay into William Street and Ms Keenan stopped in the middle of the road to let the car pass. That is the last reported sighting of her.

Anyone with information on the disappearance of Ms Keenan is urged to contact Waterford garda station on 051 305 300 or phone the garda confidential line on 1800 666 111.