Gardaí investigating the death of Brazilian woman Bruna Fonseca in Cork on New Year’s Day believe there may be people who passed the scene whom they have not yet spoken and who may have information that can assist the investigation.
Gardaí have issued an appeal to anyone who was on Liberty Street, off North Main Street in the city centre, either on foot or in a car, between 4.30am and 6.30am on January 1st and may have seen or heard anything unusual to come forward.
It is understood gardaí have examined CCTV footage from the general area, which is to the rear of the Courthouse on Washington Street, and they believe there may be people who were in the vicinity at the time but have not yet contacted them despite earlier appeals to the public for assistance.
They particularly want to speak to people, including two women, who were in the area in the two hours before Ms Fonseca (28) was found by gardaí at 6.30am on New Year’s Day in an unresponsive state in a flat on Liberty Street when they responded to a phone call to Anglesea Street Garda station.
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Anyone who can assist gardaí in their investigation is asked to contact the Bridewell Garda station in Cork, where gardaí have established an incident room, on 021-4943330, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800-666111, or any Garda station.
The Garda appeal comes as it emerged that Ms Fonseca’s remains have been released by the Cork City Coroner’s office back to her family, who plan to bring her body back to Brazil next Friday for a funeral in her hometown of Formiga in the province of Minas Gerais in south-eastern Brazil.
Meanwhile a fundraising appeal, set up on January 2nd by Ms Fonseca’s 18-year-old niece Maria Luiza Fonseca to help cover the costs of bringing her remains back to Brazil for burial, has to date received 3,200 separate donations and raised more than €54,000.
Maria Luiza Fonseca and Marcela Fonseca, a cousin of Bruna, organised a vigil at 10am on Sunday at the Lough on Cork’s southside to remember their relative, and the Brazilian community on Leeside turned out in force for the event.
Marcela Fonseca told the Irish Examiner that they had decided to hold the vigil at the Lough because it was one of her cousin’s favourite places in Cork as she found peace and solace during her frequent walks around the lake. She had urged everyone to wear white and to bring candles and white roses.
Ms Fonseca said of the response to the GoFundMe appeal: “The Brazilian community, the Irish people, everyone has helped us – we are so far, far from home and our family but we feel at home here.”
The Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr Deirdre Forde, said that Ms Fonseca’s violent death had shocked everyone on Leeside. “On behalf of the people of Cork, I have reached out to Bruna’s family to convey to them how shocked and deeply saddened we are that her life was cut short so brutally.”
Ms Fonseca, a qualified librarian who had studied at Centro Universitario de Formiga, had come to Ireland last September with her niece to improve her English and she had been working as a contract cleaner with Bidvest Noonan Contract Cleaning at the Mercy University Hospital in Cork.
The deceased, who lived with relatives and friends at an apartment on Southern Road in the city, had been out socialising at the Oyster Tavern with other members of the Brazilian community in Cork as they welcomed in the new year just hours before she was killed.
Ms Fonseca is survived by her parents Marina and Tadeu and her sisters Fernanda and Izabel, who told a newspaper in Brazil that they “were just living one day at a time” and that her sister “was always helping those who sought help from her”.
Meanwhile, Ms Fonseca’s former boyfriend Miller Pacheco (29) is due to make his second court appearance on Monday after he was charged on January 2nd with the murder of Ms Fonseca at his upstairs flat at Liberty Street on New Year’s Day, contrary to common law.
