Gardaí investigating the murder of Leixlip schoolgirl Ana Kriegel are asking anyone who may have been in St Catherine's Park in Lucan on Monday last week to come forward.
In a renewed appeal for information this afternoon, gardaí asked anyone who was in the park from 5pm that day to contact Lucan Garda Station on 01 6667300, The Garda Confidential Telephone Line on 1800 666 111 or any Garda Station.
Investigators in the case have taken personal items, including clothing, from a number of teenage boys for forensic and DNA testing as part of their inquiry.
Detectives believe Ana was sexually assaulted and killed very shortly after the last confirmed sighting of her at 5.50pm last Monday near the park. They are working on theory that her murder was perhaps a spur of the moment effort to conceal a sex crime.
The 14-year-old’s clothes and remains, as well as the scene where she was found, have been examined with a view to creating DNA profiles. Gardaí hope a crosscheck of results from the sets of tests will help them to more firmly identity a suspect or exonerate innocent parties.
However, while a DNA profile can be quickly created when samples are collected specifically for that purpose, the process is slower when samples are being harvested from items such as clothing that have simply come into contact with persons of interest. This means the test results may not be available for several more days, but sources hoped this would not be the case.
A postmortem on Ana’s remains revealed she died of blunt force trauma, indicating she was beaten, possibly by an attacker using a weapon such as a stick or large piece of wood.
Derelict farmhouse
Gardaí believe she was murdered in the derelict farmhouse off the Lucan to Clonee road, near St Catherine's Park, where her body was found.
Detectives also believe they have pieced together Ana's movements for the period last Monday evening when she was in the company of boys she knew well after leaving her home at Newtown Park in Leixlip at about 5pm.
However, the detail of what occurred when she was later in the company of a male friend is less clear. Gardaí have spoken to a number of boys aged 13 and 14 years and when their accounts were compared some discrepancies have emerged.
While one of the boys spoken to by gardaí appeared to have some injuries and also blood on his clothing, he has said he was assaulted by two men on his way home after spending time in the company of friends including Ana.
DNA tests
Investigators working on the case were keeping an open mind, sources said, and are hopeful that the DNA tests should pinpoint who she was with inside the derelict farmhouse.
Ana, who had been adopted from Russia aged two, lived in Leixlip with her mother Geraldine, father Patric and brother Aaron. She was a first year student at Confey Community College.
Her family reported her missing at 8pm last Monday after she failed to respond to calls or texts. A search began the following day and her remains were discovered on Thursday.
