A GARDA search at the Wicklow mountains in connection with the disappearance of a young woman in Dublin two years ago will continue this morning.
Members of the Garda Technical Bureau arrived at the search site at Kippure yesterday afternoon, followed up shortly afterwards by the Garda helicopter, which flew over the area for a time.
The search, which began on Wednesday, is the third for human remains in the Wicklow mountains this week. It is centred on a half-acre site, on Coillte-owned lands close to the Kippure Estate on the isolated Manor Kilbride to Sally Gap road.
Gardaí are understood to be searching for the remains of Marioara Rostas (19) who was last seen begging at traffic lights in Dublin’s south inner city in January 2010. It is understood a tip-off led gardaí investigating her disappearance to the site on Wednesday.
The area of Garda interest is some distance along a forest track on rising wooded ground. Access to the public is barred by a Coillte gate and a plain clothes garda was turning away members of the media yesterday.
A spokesman for Coillte said the State-owned forestry company was not linking damage to a number of nearby forest gates on Wednesday night with the search. A Coillte operative in the area yesterday said locks had been shorn with cutting equipment.
Gardaí began their search of the area on Wednesday, having just completed a separate, two-day search of an area around Kilranelagh, also in the Wicklow mountains, about 8km north of Baltinglass. The Kilranelagh search followed information related to convicted rapist Larry Murphy, which was provided by a forensic scientist.
On Sunday last a shallow grave containing the remains of missing Dublin man James McDonagh was discovered by hillwalkers at Slieve na mBan Óg mountain, Co Wicklow. Mr McDonagh (28) had been murdered in October 2010 by an organised crime gang from west Dublin and his body dumped.
The search for the remains of Ms Rostas, a member of the Roma community, is the latest development in an intensive investigation into her disappearance. She is presumed to have been shot dead.
While a gangland criminal from Dublin’s south inner city is suspected of being centrally involved in the murder of Ms Rostas, gardaí have not discounted the theory that the fatal shots were discharged by another person, possibly a woman.
The male suspect is believed to have sexually assaulted Ms Rostas and later helped to dispose of her body after she had been shot dead. He is also a suspect in the shooting dead of Darren Cogan (19), Bluebell Road, Dublin, in the Blackhorse Inn, Inchicore, on June 25th last.
Ms Rostas was last seen on Lombard Street East in Dublin on Sunday, January 6th, 2010, at the junction of Pearse Street. She was seen talking to a man, believed to be the gangland suspect, in a car described as a silver Ford Mondeo.