GARDAI confirmed last night that the body of a woman discovered by a jogger two days ago at Portmarnock beach, Co Dublin, was a 32 year old Co Wicklow woman who went missing last month, writes Paul Gallagher.
Ms Siobhan Murphy went missing on December 13th after leaving her house in Casement Park, Bray, at around 3.20 p.m., to walk to the local DART station where her Peugeot 106 car was parked.
Her family later found she had left her handbag in her room. It contained her wallet and car keys.
Ms Murphy had been staying with her family in Bray for two weeks while she did a CERT course in Dublin. She had worked as a chef in a Donegal hotel for 12 years.
Before Ms Murphy went missing she had told her mother she was not going to complete the course she was attending. "She was a bit stressed about it", her mother, Mrs Ann Murphy, said last month.
On the day of her disappearance Ms Murphy had returned home directly from Dublin without picking up her car at Bray DART station, according to her mother. She lay down for a couple of hours before leaving her home to collect the vehicle.
"She said she was going for her car and I asked her to get the paper," her mother said. According to Mrs Murphy, her daughter was looking forward to Christmas and the arrival from England of her sister, brother in law and godchild.
Her family and neighbours joined the Civil Defence in the search. Gardai received reports of sightings of a woman fitting her description at Enniskerry, Co Wicklow, and Killiney, Co Dublin, last month.