GARDAÍ LAST night opened a murder inquiry following the discovery in Co Kerry of a body believed to be that of a 25-year-old man missing from his flat in Cork city for over a week.
Gardaí had not last night formally identified the body of the man found in a field at Lady's Walk in Ballyduff outside Listowel but they believed it to be that of John McManus, a native of Fermoy who has not been seen since October 30th.
Initial indications suggested the man had suffered a number of injuries.
The body was being kept at the scene overnight as gardaí requested the services of the State Pathologist's Office to carry out a preliminary examination in situ and a postmortem today.
The man's body was discovered at about 6pm yesterday by gardaí from Listowel. Gardaí believe whoever dumped the body planned to return to bury the remains.
The discovery of the body followed an earlier incident at about 1.15pm when a garda on routine patrol spotted a man jumping over a ditch from the field at Ballyduff and getting into a car and driving off.
The garda pursued the man and stopped him and impounded the car for having no insurance.
Detectives subsequently returned to Ballyduff to begin a search.
A man was arrested in a house in Tralee at about 7pm last night.
The man, who is in his 20s and from Cork city and known to Mr McManus, was taken to Tralee Garda station and it is expected that gardaí will travel from Cork to question him about the discovery of the body.
Gardaí in Cork had become concerned for Mr McManus after they called to his flat at Verdon Place on Wellington Road on the city's northside and found blood on the walls and ceiling as well as on bed clothes.
The Irish Timesunderstands that curtains had been removed and used to clean up the blood and gardaí requested the services of a forensic scientist from the forensic science laboratory in Dublin to examine and identify the blood stains.
Gardaí now believe that Mr McManus, who has not been seen since October 30th in Mayfield and who has not withdrawn any money from his bank account for over a week, was attacked in the downstairs flat with some sort of implement and fatally wounded.