Cork couple's vanishing remains a mystery 33 years on

CONOR and Sheila Dwyer were 62 and 61 respectively when they were last seen alive in Fermoy on Tuesday, April 30, 1991.

The last time they were sighted, they were greeted at 9.30am by local Catherine Fenton — who would later become a nun — as they were walking the short distance, less than 50 metres, from their Chapel Hill home up to a requiem Mass in St Patrick’s Church.

After that, they were not seen publicly again, and after that, there was only one further, brief contact, on May 1, when Mrs Dwyer spoke briefly on the telephone with her sister, Maisie.

Three weeks later, Mrs Dwyer’s sisters Maisie and Nellie, concerned at being unable to contact the couple, raised the alarm and Fermoy gardaí gained entry to their home on Wednesday, May 22, 1991.

The house on Chapel Hill appeared undisturbed, with the couple’s passports accounted for and no sign of any clothing missing. Media reports subsequently said that the only unusual thing in the house was a biscuit tin containing £1,000.

Despite that, the Dwyers had made no large withdrawals before they vanished, and their bank accounts remained untouched since their disappearance. The only thing missing was the Toyota Cressida car they drove, registration number 5797 ZT.

The succinct report on the front of the Evening Echo on Thursday, May 23, 1991, entitled “Missing couple baffle gardaí”, captures the story in details which, 33 years later, remain largely unchanged. The report says “They are described by gardaí and friends as a very close, reserved couple who ‘kept to themselves’,” adding that gardaí had checked the ports, to no avail, and there were “heightened fears” for their safety.

“Conor is described as 5’8” in height, 11 stone, dark hair parted to the right, wears dark-rimmed glasses, pipe smoker, check sports jacket, navy lightweight trenchcoat.

“Sheila is described as 5’4” in height, fair/blonde hair, light woollen tailored jacket, white leather walking shoes.”

Mr Dwyer, who was described by some locally as a “flamboyant” character, had previously worked as a plumber and a hackney driver, and was employed as a handyman and chauffeur for millionaire German businessman Fritz Wolff, who at the time kept a home in Castlelyons, four miles from Fermoy.

Mr Dwyer worked on Mr Wolff’s cars, and was often seen driving Mr Wolf’s vintage Rolls Royce, which many in Fermoy thought Mr Dwyer owned.

In the years since their disappearance, there have been many rumours — there are always rumours — and multiple reports of sightings. One such sighting was reported from Germany in 1993, but nothing came of that.

That same year, RTÉ’s Crimeline staged a reconstruction of the couple’s last known movements, and the programme received over 100 calls from the public, but any hoped-for breakthrough failed to materialise.

In March 1997, Conor and Sheila Dwyer’s home, in the shadow of the steeple of St Patrick’s church, was sold at public auction, along with a separate site they had owned in another part of Fermoy.

SEARCH

In 2000, acting on intelligence, gardaí searched a quarry in Aherla, but no trace of the Dwyers was found.

The Dwyers’ son Conor lives in the UK, as does their other son, Gerry. In a 2008 RTÉ Radio 1 documentary, Thin Air, Conor said he had last spoken to his parents on the St Patrick’s Day before they disappeared, and they had been in good form.

“I didn’t know anyone who disliked them, and I can’t see them having any enemies,” he said.

“They were local, friendly, respected people. The not knowing keeps you awake at night. I wonder what the hell was going through their minds.

“I question myself sometimes. Why this, why that, why the other thing? How? Why? When? What? I don’t know.

“And that’s what keeps you awake at night. It rattles around in my brain all the time,” he said.

“There’s a void of information. It’s very bizarre and inexplicable — it’s a living nightmare.”

Despite the passage of time, Conor Jr said in 2008 that he still believed his parents were alive.

If they are still alive today, Conor Sr and Sheila would now be 95 and 94.

In an eerie but unconnected coincidence, former Fermoy town councillor Billy Fennessey had disappeared on March 30, 1990, some 14 months before the Dwyers vanished.

The 54-year-old had run a successful pub, auctioneers and undertaking business in Fermoy, and he was last seen on Friday, March 30, 1990. His Daihatsu Charade, registration number 32 ZIF, was missing as well.

For over two decades, no trace of Mr Fennessy was discovered, and his disappearance would, in time, become entwined in the public imagination with that of the Dwyers.

Then, on Monday, October 29, 2012, members of the Blackwater Sub Aqua Search and Rescue team, performing a routine dive about 350 metres west of Fermoy’s Kent Bridge and a few hundred metres downstream of an ancient fording point, discovered the wreckage of a Daihatsu Charade submerged in silt 3.5 metres underwater.

Human remains recovered from the vehicle were, months later, confirmed by DNA testing to be those of Mr Fennessy, allowing his family some lonely closure all those years later.

No such closure has come for the loved ones of Conor and Sheila Dwyer, and with every passing year the memory of the couple has faded a little more in their home in Fermoy, while the mystery remains unsolved.

The national Missing Persons Helpline is 1800 442552, and the website is missingpersons.ie.

Anyone with information on the Dwyers’ disappearance is asked to call the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666111 or Fermoy Garda Station on 025 82100.