UK UK - Christina Bracken, 38, Swansea, Wales, 19 May 1979

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Christina Nuala Bracken

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Case Classification: Missing
Missing Since: May 19, 1979
Location Last Seen: Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom

Physical Description
Date of Birth: Circa 1941
Age: 38 years old
Race: White
Gender: Female
Height: Unknown
Weight: Unknown
Hair Color: Unknown
Eye Color: Blue
Nickname/Alias: Sister Jacinta
Distinguishing Marks/Features: Unknown

Identifiers
Dentals: Unknown
Fingerprints: Unknown
DNA: Unknown

Clothing & Personal Items
Clothing: Unknown
Jewelry: Unknown
Additional Personal Items: Unknown

Circumstances of Disappearance
Sister Jacinta Bracken left the Stella Maris convent in Swansea around lunchtime on May 19, 1979, to go shopping. She was last seen near the city's Quadrant multi-storey car park by two children she taught. Her handbag was found on foreshore the next day, 30 feet from West Pier. Bracken would often walk along the sand and mud banks of the old docklands on her way back to the convent from shopping in the city center. No passport has been issued or death registered under her name since her disappearance.

Investigating Agency(s)
Agency Name: Swansea police station - South Wales Police
Agency Phone Number: 01792 456999

1965DFUK - Christina Nuala Bracken
 
The missing people in Wales who have never been found

On May 19 1979, Christine went missing during a shopping trip to Swansea city centre.

Her handbag was found on the town beach the following day and inside was a birthday present she had just bought for her mother. A major missing person investigation was launched but what happened to the woman that day remains a mystery more than four decades later.

Christina Bracken was 38 and originally from the village of Ballacolla in Ireland. She was a nun at Swansea's Stella Maris Convent and described by someone who knew her as "a dear little creature, a lovely soul. Dreadfully shy to the point of being timid."
 
2012 rbbm.
''A Rathdowney family is making a heartfelt appeal to their long lost relative who disappeared in mysterious circumstances over 30 years ago but who they now believe is living in Tipperary, to come forward so the family can be re-united at long last.

The family wants closure on a painful episode which saw them separated from their sister and aunt, who disappeared without a trace in Swansea in 1979. The family is now convinced that Sr Jacinta, previously Christina Nuala Bracken, is living somewhere in Tipperary. They’re hoping Sr Jacinta will read this story and come forward so she can meet her family before it’s too late.''

''At the time, local police in Wales launched a major missing person’s search, with appeals through local media. The case grew cold, but five years ago, the Detective Inspector leading the search re-opened the matter, reconstructing key stages of Sr Jacinta’s disappearance on BBC television. The footage was not shown on Irish television. Along the way, the family has hired private investigators and even a psychic in a bid to track down Sr Jacinta’s whereabouts. “She left the convent one day. Her bag was found but that was it. Her belongings were gone as well. She played guitar and that was gone,” said her niece.
The family nearly had their hopes dashed five years ago when Swansea Police uncovered a body they thought was Sr Jacinta’s. The UK authorities obtained DNA evidence from the remaining family, but the body turned out not to be their aunt and sister. Recently, new information has come to light, suggesting that Sister Jacinta made her way by ferry from Swansea back to Cork, and even to Tipperary. Born Christina Nuala Bracken on November 26, 1939, Christina became Sr Jacinta upon taking her vows. She would now be 72 years old''

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''In those first few days and weeks after her disappearance theories and rumours did the rounds in Swansea. Had she returned to Ireland? Had she forsaken her vows and simply chosen to disappear? Had she taken her own life? Had she fallen into the river or somehow got into difficulty in the sea and been swept away by the tide? Had she suffered some kind a fatal accident on land and her body become covered? Was a homeless man she was said to have befriended in the city centre connected? Had sister Jacinta been abducted? There were many questions but few answers.''

Another theory involves the nun getting sucked into a hole in the wall in Swansea's docklands.''
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Another theory is that she is alive and well living a new life in another part of the world
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Det Insp Andy Hughes

''Police say Sister Jacinta would often walk along the sand and mud banks of the old docklands on her way back to the convent from shopping in the city centre.

At the far end of the dock there was large hole in the wall which police say had a lot of suction.

Jenny Brain, who was a detective constable for South Wales Police at the time of the disappearance but has since retired from the force, said it is possible Sister Jacinta may have fallen into Swansea dock. She said: "Because she disappeared without trace, that is one of the theories we are working on.

"We had a clairvoyant draw a map of Swansea, pointing out where there was a hole in the dock.

The clairvoyant said he thought she might have been buried or fallen into a hole somehow.

2006
Newspaper stories on Sister Jacinta's disappearance

The disappearance made headlines in 1979
''There was also a lot of building work in Swansea at the time Sister Jacinta disappeared including the development of the docklands into the marina Swansea has now and the construction of county hall.
One theory says the missing nun is in the foundations of a building somewhere.
The area is now a marina with lock gates preventing all the water from draining away at low tide.''
 
Hope she gets found soon... I still have yet to find out if I am really related to her. This discussion began on the Angel of the Meadow thread:
 

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