Gardaí are continuing to detain a man in his 40s in relation to the death of a woman whose body was found with head injuries at her house in Midleton in Co Cork on Sunday morning.
Detectives arrested the 46-year-old man in the Douglas Street area of Cork city on Monday afternoon and brought him to Midleton for questioning about the murder of Catherine Smart whose body was found at her house in Bailick Court in Midleton at about 9.45am on Sunday
His questioning was suspended overnight into this morning and resumed at 8am.
This suspension means the permitted 24-hour period of detention is due to expire at about midnight. Gardaí will then have to decide to either charge the man or release him without charge.
Meanwhile garda technical experts today concluded their forensic examination of Ms Smart’s single-storey terraced house where gardaí found her partially clothed body on the kitchen floor on Sunday after a call was made to the emergency services.
A post-mortem examination revealed Ms Smart had sustained a number of blows to the back of the head.
Gardai believe that Ms Smart was fatally assaulted sometime between 5am and 9.45am on Sunday as gardaí had called to the house at 5am that morning after she dialled the emergency services to say that she couldn’t gain entry to the house upon returning home.
There was no sign of a forced entry to the house.
Supt Flor Horan of Midleton Garda station, who is leading the investigation, renewed his appeal to anyone who may have seen any unusual activity in the Bailick Road area between 3am and 10am on Sunday to contact Midleton Garda station on 021-4631324.