Car is key to unlocking 30-year-old mystery of Irish couple who vanished without a trace

Gardaí, in Jan 2019, admitted that tracing a 30-year-old Toyota Cressida car or its parts now holds the clue to solving the mysterious disappearance of a Cork couple, in 1991.

Conor and Sheila Dwyer's disappearance remains one of Ireland's most baffling missing person’s cases despite a major investigation which remains active.

According to the Irish Independent, both Gardaí (Irish police) and the couple's family have been unable to determine their fate and several years have passed since any possible new information has come to light.

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But detectives believe tracing their Toyota Cressida car could solve the mystery to what happened and urged anyone with information to contact them.

The car, a white saloon, with the registration number 5797 ZT has never been found.

Travel documents along with personal belongings including photo albums, clothing, and jewelry were all left behind at their Chapel Hill home and their bank accounts have never been accessed.

Despite numerous appeals, TV reconstructions, and even an RTÉ radio documentary, no confirmed trace of the couple was ever found.

A Garda source told the Irish Independent: "The file is open but, at this point, we just don't know what happened.

"Without any possible sightings to investigate, our best hope is tracing that Toyota Cressida car.

"Or what might remain of it, such as a license plate or engine block."

Possible sighting two years later

A possible sighting was reported in Munich in Germany in 1993 but both Bavarian police and Interpol were unable to confirm it.

The German information intrigued Gardaí because Dwyer, a handyman, had worked for a time in Ireland for a German businessman.

Dwyer ran errands for the businessman and also looked after his cars, including a Rolls-Royce.

The last sighting was by a neighbor near their Chapel Hill home at 9:30 am on April 30 as the couple left to attend a funeral.

The last contact anyone had with the couple was on May 1 when Dwyer spoke to her sister on the phone.

On May 22, the alarm was raised when Dwyer's sisters, Maisie and Nellie, became concerned at their inability to locate the couple and alerted Gardaí.

The disappearance shocked neighbors, friends, and family because all had reported nothing unusual with either Conor or Sheila Dwyer.

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See: Garda Missing Person List

* Originally published in Jan 2019.

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