Gardaí investigating the killingof Co Louth taxi driver Martin Mulligan were studying his mobile phone records and local CCTV on Monday in the hope of identifying his killer.
Mr Mulligan (53), a married father who also had a business selling coal, was found dead on a road near the Border just after 3am on Monday by three women driving home.
He was discovered about 200m from his taxi on a small cross-Border road at Carnbeg, near Kilcurry, about 2.5km west of Dundalk.
Gardaí believe Mr Mulligan was stabbed and then staggered a short distance from his car before he collapsed and died.
The motive for the murder has not been established. Gardaí are not ruling out the possibility he was robbed or had become involved in a dispute with a passenger.
Number unknown
Garda sources said it was as yet unclear whether one person or a number of people were at the scene when the killing happened some time after 2am.
The possibility the killer may have been travelling to the North or fled there after fatally stabbing Mr Mulligan was also being explored.
The investigation team is liaising with the PSNI.
Mr Mulligan was an independent driver, meaning he did not work with a taxi company from whom he would have taken fares over a radio and would have a record of passenger and pick-up details.
Gardaí are checking CCTV in Dundalk to establish if Mr Mulligan picked up a passenger from the street or a rank in the town.
The dead man’s phone records will also reveal the approximate locations he had driven to in the period leading up to his murder and whether he had been in telephone contact with anybody.
Supt Gerry Curley, who is heading the investigation, said detectives wished to speak to anyone who may have been a passenger in Mr Mulligan’s car or may have seen him on Sunday night or the following morning to contact them.
“I am sure there are people who know something about this incident,” said Supt Curley. “We can confirm Martin started work as a taxi man around 9.30pm on Sunday.
“And we are appealing to anyone who used this services after 9.30pm, or anyone who saw him or his car during the course of the night and anyone who was in the Carnmore-Kilcurry area between 1am and 3.30am to contact us.”
He added Mr Mulligan was “a family man, a local man, a hard working man in the Dundalk area”.
Several reported sightings of him were already being investigated by the Garda team. Searches of the ditches and fields close to the location where the dead man’s body was found were under way.
Murder weapon
They were expected to continue for a number of days in the event the killer discarded the murder weapon or any other items of evidential significance.
Mr Mulligan’s family, a number of whom visited the murder scene, live in a large detached house off the Lower Point Road in Dundalk.
They declined to comment.
The victim’s taxi is a beige of champagne-coloured Skoda Octavia, registration number 07LH 5599.
It was undergoing a forensic examination in Dublin by members of the Garda Technical Bureau.
Deputy State Pathologist Dr Michael Curtis carried out a preliminary examination of the body at the scene of the killing.
The remains were then taken to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda for a postmortem, which confirmed Mr Mulligan had been murdered.
