A search of the River Moy near Foxford, Co Mayo, is to continue today for the male companion of a woman whose body was taken from the river by a team of searchers on Sunday afternoon.
A postmortem on Kiera Henry (27) at Mayo General Hospital yesterday established that she died from drowning. Ms Henry, originally from the village of Ballydrum, Swinford, went missing in Foxford late on Thursday night.
She was last seen outside Maloney's pub just after 11.20pm in the company of Séamus McElhatton (46), who lives in Ballina.
There are reports that the pair left Maloney's after a confrontation in the bar with another person.
One theory being explored by gardaí last night was that Ms Henry, who worked on a Fás scheme in Ballina, slipped and that Mr McElhatton, a colleague on the scheme, fell into the river when he tried to save her.
Supt Ken Brennan of Swinford Garda station, who is heading the investigation, said that Garda water units conducted a surface search of the river yesterday.
"We carried out a risk assessment to see if it is safe to put divers in the water," Supt Brennan said. "It could be tomorrow before we have a decision on this."
Despite the intensive search, Supt Brennan said Mr McElhatton was being treated as a missing person. "It is possible he is alive and well. If so, we are asking him to contact us."
Ms Henry will be waked in her parent's house at Ballydrum, Swinford, tonight before her burial tomorrow in Kilconduff Cemetery.
The alarm was raised at the weekend when Ms Henry's purse with her name inside was found by a council worker on the river bank near the main bridge in Foxford.
Gardaí hope to put divers in the Moy tomorrow as a back-up to surface search teams.
Water levels in the Moy are high at the moment but have fallen since Thursday night/Friday morning when the dead woman is believed to have entered the water.