THE family of an Irish woman missing in Portugal for five years today are demanding a full police investigation into her disappearance.
Jean Tighe’s family are deeply unhappy at the way the authorities in Portugal have dealt with her case.
The 38-year-old vanished off the face of the earth at the Pareda holiday resort.
She was last seen alive on July 13, 2020 outside a hostel in the town.
A private investigator previously established Jean was last seen exiting the hostel with a man from Brazil, leaving her passport behind.
Jean had booked a flight to return home to Ireland on July 15, 2020 but never made it.
She was reported missing by persons who were staying in the hostel with her on July 16, but her family were never informed at the time.
She was a seasoned traveller who went all over the world and her family only became concerned and actually discovered she was missing when she didn’t arrive home for Christmas that year.
Her family also suspect her social media was being used by another person in the months after her disappearance.
Her sister Leona said her Facebook Messenger and Instagram accounts were being used around September, October and through to November, which led the family to believe that she was fine.
She said: “Whatever was going on with the social media needs to be investigated because there are huge clues there.
“We think it wasn’t Jean that was on the social media but whoever was on the social media now needs to come forward. That person needs to be found.”
Now Cavan-Monaghan TD Brendan Smith has requested the Portuguese police carry out a “comprehensive, ongoing and proper investigation” into her disappearance.
The police never had any public appeal for her at the time in Portugal. She was also only put on their missing database two years ago.
‘NEVER PROPER ANSWERS’
He said: “The investigation to date has been totally inadequate and it is simply just not good enough.
“CCTV that wasn’t used either in the immediate aftermath of Jean’s disappearance.
“There are a whole load of questions that have never been satisfactorily answered. that both I and Jean’s family have put out there to the different authorities from the Gardai, to the Dept of Justice, Dept of Foreign Affairs here and relayed to the Portuguese authorities.
“There have never been proper answers to those queries.”
Deputy Smith also organised a meeting about the case between members of Jean’s family and the new Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan.
He is hoping that the diplomatic pressure from the Irish Government will persuade the Portuguese police to put more resources into the investigation.
Jean Tighe vanished off the face of the earth at the Pareda holiday resort on July 15, 2020[/caption]
