The family of this Irish woman missing in Portugal today pleads with gardai to take over the case – alleging that local cops are telling them nothing.
“We don’t know what they are doing,” the sister of Jean Tighe said of the Portuguese police - more than two years since the 41-year-old vanished without trace from a sun resort in July 2020.
“We want the Irish police to take over the case.”
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Speaking exclusively to The Star, Jean’s sister Leona claims that Portuguese police are keeping the family in the dark about the probe into her disappearance – and they have no idea what steps they have taken to search for her.
“All they have told us is that they can’t find Jean,” Ms Tighe said.
“They didn’t answer our questions", she claimed.
And Ms Tighe also admitted yesterday that she hopes Jean is still alive – but now is terrified something has happened to her.
She said: “I do fear the worst. We don’t know if something happened to her or if she is with some crowd that she can’t get away from.”
And she added: “People have the right to go missing, I understand that. But if they do decide to go missing, then you also have the right to be told.”
Ms Tighe said the family’s ordeal began when Jean decided to head to the resort of Parede, around 30km west of Lisbon, in the summer of 2020. She said Jean, who was from Virginia in Co Cavan and from a family of five children, was a regular world traveller and was using Dublin as a base when she went to Parede.
Ms Tighe, who lives in America, said she kept in regular contact with Jean – who always agreed that no matter where she was travelling she would be home in Cavan for Christmas. She told the Star she spoke to Jean on July 13, 2020 - the day she was last seen as she left a hostel where she had been staying in the resort.
“She was in good form and no alarm bells were ringing in my head when I spoke to her,” Ms Tighe said.
“There was nothing in her tone or what she said to suggest to me that there was anything wrong. There was nothing out of the ordinary with her on the phone.”
Ms Tighe added Jean was acting normally as she left the hostel, according to people she later spoke to.
She said: “She left the hostel with her handbag, which I am presuming has her phone and her back cards in it. She left her bag and her passport in the hostel. It was like she was going off for an hour but had intentions of coming back.”
Ms Tighe said Jean was a regular traveller – and was fiercely independent. And the family was used to not hearing from her for long periods of time – but she would always come home for Christmas.
“The phone always rang when Jean had no money or needed a flight home, that was a guarantee,” she said.
“Jean had travelled everywhere, there were very few places Jean hadn’t been. Jean had been to Australia with my mother when I lived there. She'd been to England. She'd been all over Europe. She'd been to India, she'd been to South Africa. She was well travelled.
“Jean was always doing her own thing. So we just said, ‘look whatever you do, come home for Christmas’.
“She'd go off to places like India and she was there for a couple of months meditating and doing all of this. She didn’t drink or take drugs and is a vegan.”
Ms Tighe said the family became concerned for her welfare when she failed to come home in December 2020 for the festive period. The family then reported her missing to Fitzgibbon Street Garda Station in central Dublin, which is part of Mountjoy District where she was living at the time, and one of Jean’s friends also alerted Portuguese police.
Ms Tighe claimed that, more than two years on, the Portuguese police are telling the family nothing – and they don’t know what local cops have done to look for her sister.
She said: “The police went to the hostel and investigated that. I don’t know if they did the CCTV or (Jean’s) phones.
“I know nobody did the bank account because her direct debits bounced and we got a letter. We could not get any access, the guards could not get any access to the account.
“That to me was just not good enough in a missing person’s report that the guards cannot go in and get your back records and find out where the last time and place money was taken out was. Her phone was never pinged to my knowledge
“We’ve never gotten the phone records and we have never gotten the CCTV. And if the Portuguese police have all that they haven’t told me.
“I’d be amazed if the bank records were obtained, I’d be amazed if the CCTV was obtained and I’d be amazed if the phones were pinged.”
She then pleaded for gardai to take over the case – because they were being kept in the dark.
She said: “This is why the Irish police need to be involved. For an investigation into someone who has gone missing I would have thought there would have been more liaison with the family – and we don’t have that.
“I want to know exactly what the police have done with Jean’s case. I want the Irish police to take back the case, to liaise with us, with the Portuguese police and Interpol and to make sure that the case is active.
“Things could have been missed because of COVID. I don’t know if she is in a morgue over there or not – I just don’t know.
“We want liaison. We don’t know what they are doing. How can you not trace someone with all this modern technology?
“I’ve never known police not to liaise with a family. She is an Irish citizen and it is up to the gardai to help us. We can’t do this, the embassy can’t do this – it is police work.”
When asked if she had her worst fears that something had happened to Jean, Ms Tighe said: ”I do.”
And she added: “It is taking a terrible toll on the family. It is very hard on everyone.
“Some of my extended family think that Jean has gone off with a group, and others like myself are always fearing the worst.”
A Garda spokesman last night told The Star the force was helping Portuguese police with the inquiry into Jean’s disappearance.
He said: “The disappearance of Jean Tighe is being investigated by the Portuguese authorities. The disappearance of Jean Tighe was also reported to An Garda Síochána at Mountjoy and An Garda Síochána have and will continue to carry out local enquiries to assist the Portuguese authorities with this investigation.
“At all times, any information that has come to the attention of An Garda Síochána in respect of missing person Jean Tighe has been forwarded through the appropriate channels (Interpol) for the attention of the Portuguese authorities. Gardaí continue to liaise with the family of Jean Tighe.”
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