"I never thought I'd be here, doing this, " he said on Friday, as the hurley whacked through some tall grass. "I just wish we'd find her, and there could be an end to it.

Someone has to know. Why won't they say anything? Just to know. Nothing is worse than this. It's going on too long now."

Beside him, dressed in a pink windbreaker and with her hair tied neatly in a ponytail, Meg's 17-year-old daughter Sasha worked also to find her mother. She swiped at the ground with one of the long sticks used by all the searchers. Crickets sung loudly in response.

A few hundred yards away, the stretch of road was littered with shorn grass and bush and hedge, from where hundreds of searchers had already looked in the most unlikely of places, hoping to find Meg.

Since Sunday, 1 October . . . when the 35-year-old mother was last seen driving from her home at Ballinakill Downs in Waterford . . . the official investigation has been broadened every day, with more manpower drafted in, more ground covered. But no sign of Meg.

Still, the searchers remained optimistic and, according to one volunteer, believed they were "getting closer".

"The noose is tightening now, " he said.

"The gardai know who it is. It's just a matter of time."

But on Friday morning, as a roomful of journalists were waiting for a press conference with Meg's family, there was no sense from the gardai of any jubilation or certainty with regards to the investigation.

If anything, confusion reigned.

Minutes before the conference was due to begin, a garda asked waiting reporters if they would mind if Meg's husband, John O'Brien, could stand at the back of the room for the duration of the meeting. Noone objected. The garda said that in that case, he just had to clear it with Meg's brother and daughter.

Shortly after, the garda returned with the news that John O'Brien would not, now, be attending the conference, but that his two sisters and his uncle would come instead. A few minutes passed, before an elderly man and two women took up positions behind the TV cameras. They stared directly ahead, to where James Walsh and Sasha Keating were beginning the press conference.

"This is totally impossible, " said James.

"A woman doesn't just disappear from the face of the earth. If anyone knows anything, please contact us. Put a note into the car, or use a coin box, or call reception in the hotel here. Anything. It doesn't matter how you do it, just get in contact."

His lip trembled, and his eyes reddened.

He spoke with the extreme control of someone on the edge. Beside him, Sasha was quiet and composed. When a television reporter bluntly asked her if she thought her mother was dead, she didn't even blink.

"No, " she said. "I just really want to find her. I want my mother back. We were more like best friends than mother and daughter. She was a great woman and I just loved her to bits."

James went on to describe Meg . . . her love of socialising, and shopping and going out for dinner. Her "good-natured, affectionate, outgoing" personality. The shock that the family felt at her disappearance.

How out of character it was for her to not be in regular contact with them.

"This is like a horror show, " he said.

"How anyone could have hurt Meg in any way is beyond belief. But in the absence of any contact, we can only suspect that something has happened."

Although John O'Brien was not at the conference, a garda read out a statement from him. O'Brien said that he would love to have Meg back. "She is a very caring person and has always been very good to [my] parents, " he said. "Please put an end to this terribly worrying time and let us know where Meg is."

At the end of the conference, Supt Dave Sheahan reiterated what the gardai had already said . . . that they were deeply concerned about Meg, and that they'd "have to be suspicious at this stage".

The suspicion is given added weight by the fact that, in the days before her death, Meg had officially lodged a complaint with the gardai about a named man who was making serious threats against her.

At that time, she did not want the gardai to take any action over the incident, but said she wanted to have the matter recorded by them in the event of any further incidents involving the same person.

It is understood that gardai have spoken to the person identified by Meg as part of their investigation into her disappearance.

It has now been confirmed that the last sighting of Meg was on the evening of Sunday, 1 October, when she was seen driving her silver Mitsubishi Carisma out of her estate at around 8.30pm.

That car was not found for another 72 hours, parked in the Uluru car park. In a field nearby, a bloodstained car mat was also discovered. Both of these have been sent on to Dublin for forensic examination, along with one other car which is also being investigated.

As of yesterday, the investigation was continuing. The gardai, Civil Defence and volunteers continued to search the land.

Helicopters flew above, looking for an advantage with height. Local fishermen and divers from the Garda Sub-Aqua unit were searching the river and the sea. All the time, the hunt was getting bigger, the area to search was increasing.

And still, no sign of Meg.