The body of a teenage girl found yesterday afternoon at a house on the outskirts of Cavan town is believed to be that of missing 13-year-old Jamie Maughan, who was last seen at 2 a.m. on Sunday.
Gardaí were last night treating the death as suspicious.
The body was discovered at the rear of a semi-detached house at Harmony Heights, less than half a mile from Jamie's home in the Ard na Gréine estate.
The Assistant State Pathologist, Dr Margaret Bolster, arrived at 10 p.m. last night from Cork to carry out a preliminary examination at the scene before the body was removed to Cavan General hospital for a full post-mortem examination and formal identification.
Gardaí discovered the body shortly after 4 p.m. following a phone call from a member of the public.
The body was discovered at the back of the semi-detached house close to the side entrance. The body was fully clothed and bore no apparent sign of physical attack.
The red-brick house had been vacant for the past two to three months and is believed to belong to a woman from the Oldcastle area of Co Meath.
Supt Joe Sullivan of Cavan Garda station, who is leading the investigation, said gardaí had been carrying out a search for Jamie Maughan since her disappearance.
He said gardaí had received reports of a number of sightings over the past few days.
Last night, a single bunch of flowers lay at the entrance to the Harmony Heights house, placed there early in the evening by two young girls.
Shocked local people expressed their distress at the death. Mr Tom Wilson, a former publican and a resident of the Harmony Heights estate, knows the Maughan family but said he had not seen Jamie since she was about three years old.
Mr Wilson said: "You read about deaths like this in other parts of the country but it's another thing altogether when it comes to your own doorstep."
Mr Wilson described the Maughans as "a nice, quiet family".
Jamie's father, Mr Brian Maughan, and two of her uncles went to Harmony Heights yesterday after receiving a call from the gardaí. The Maughans are settled Travellers. Jamie attended Cavan Technical College.
Last night Garda forensic experts carried out a detailed examination of the scene and the house and a number of adjacent properties were sealed off. Late into the night, a number of local people gathered near the scene.
The housing estate where the body was found is about 20 years old, with a growing number of new houses behind it.
A local man who lives around the corner from Harmony Heights, Mr Thomas McCabe, said: "It's a sad day when a tragedy like this comes to a nice area."