Mum-of-three who vanished in London 32 years ago was ‘definitely murdered’

The family of a woman who went missing 32 years ago has urged police to treat her cold case as a murder investigation.

Bernadette Cooper, originally from Monoghan, Ireland, vanished from a pub in Tooting on January 10 1993, and has not been heard from since.

She was visiting London to finalise her divorce and raise funds for her Irish bar called Molly Malone’s near Malaga which she had to temporarily close during the Spanish recession.

Bernadette, who was 49 at the time, went into the the Horse and Groom pub in Tooting – now known as the Graveney and Meadow – to make a call to the Irish Bar Owners Association in Malaga before she disappeared.

She was updating them on her financial situation after asking her family to put money into the bar. Despite her family members declining to help her, Bernadette told the association: ‘I’ve got the money.’

This was the last time Bernadette would be heard from, and for years investigators hoped she had gone back to Spain, or simply ‘run away’.

But Bernadette’s nephew Leon Moore said he whole-heartedly believes ‘his most favourite aunt’ was murdered and it should never have been a missing persons case.

He told Metro: ‘Any proof of life has been exhausted. The more I discover, the darker this has become.

‘It is definitely the case she has been murdered, we are just trying to pin down who did it.’

Bernadette was a popular figure in the ex-pat community in Malaga, with Leon saying she loved living out there.

After no one had heard from her in a year, one of Bernadette’s sisters flew out to Malaga to find new owners had taken over the bar and Berndette’s belongings were left to gather dust.

Leon has helped lead the search for after taking over from his dad, Bernadette’s brother, after he died five years ago.

But he said it did not take long for him to realise there was no real chance Bernadette was still alive.

Leon said he has repeatedly pushed the police into treating her case as a murder investigation rather than a missing persons case.

He said: ‘There is no evidence she ever left the country, her passport has not been used again.

‘We have exhausted every single thing we know, and sadly we have been left with something unpallatable.’

Paying tribute to his aunt, Leon said: ‘Bernadette was a very independent and a lot of fun. She was my favourite aunt, great fun and naughty when she was on good form.

‘Obviously we would have loved to have found her, drunk or otherwise.

‘But she would have never had willingly left behind her three children – she wouldn’t have done that.’

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