Gardaí last night launched a murder inquiry after a postmortem confirmed that a young woman whose body was found hidden in undergrowth near a laneway in Cobh in Co Cork had been strangled.
Gardaí last night confirmed the body which was found partially clothed near a ditch at the back of Cobh Pirates rugby pitch in Newtown at the top of Cobh town was that of missing local teenager Sheola Keaney.
Ms Keaney (19) , from nearby Glenanaar in Cobh, had been reported missing to the Garda by her mother, Carol, on Saturday after she failed to return home on Friday from a barbecue at a friend's house in Rushbrooke on Thursday night.
Ms Keaney had been seen alive at about 3.30am on Friday when she left a disco at the Commodore Hotel. Gardaí were yesterday trying to corroborate a report that she was seen alive at about 10.30am when she left a house in the town.
However, Ms Keaney's mother became concerned when she failed to come home on Friday night and when she learned her daughter had failed to show up for work at the Rushbrooke Hotel on Friday evening.
Garda search teams drawn from the Cork North Division under Insp Dorney carried out searches in Cobh throughout Saturday and Sunday before they discovered Ms Keaney's shoes and handbag in a laneway near Newtown at about 4.30pm on Sunday.
Gardaí cordoned off the area and concentrated their search on the laneway which leads back to Cobh Pirates rugby ground. Some 45 meters from where they found the handbag and shoes, they found her body hidden in a ditch.
According to one source, Ms Keaney's body was very carefully concealed beneath a pile of scrap metal including some corrugated iron sheeting which was used to cover her. "Whoever killed her did their best to make sure she wouldn't be found easily."
Forensic experts from the Garda Technical Bureau in Dublin arrived at the scene at about 11.30am yesterday and carried out a technical examination of the scene before assistant State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster arrived just before 1pm.
Dr Bolster carried out a preliminary examination of Ms Keaney's body at the scene for over an hour, before it was brought to Cork University Hospital for a full post-mortem.
It is understood that gardaí believe Ms Keaney was killed early on Friday morning and that her body was dumped at the scene under cover of darkness.
More than 50 gardaí from Cork north division and neighbouring Cork city division have been deployed, with officers yesterday carrying out door-to-door inquiries in Newtown and Rushbrooke in Cobh.
Ms Keaney had lived with her mother, Carol, in Cobh, having moved back there almost year ago from Tipperary where she had lived for a period with her father, Peter, and where she had attended Rockwell College where she excelled at sports, including hockey.
Ms Keaney previously worked at Fota golf club and was working as a waitress at the Rushbrooke Hotel. She had planned to go to college in the autumn.
Yesterday, her friends laid bouquets of flowers at the entrance to the laneway. Gardaí have anyone with information to contact them on 021-490 8530.