Gardai in Mayo have appealed for help in piecing together the last hours of Gillian Thornton (20), murdered in Ballina after attending a disco last Thursday night. Her body was found on Saturday morning in a disused garden off a laneway. On Thursday, she had attended the "Long Necks" disco, and was seen there when it ended about 3 a.m. On Friday, when she had not returned home, her family contacted the Garda. After a series of searches on Friday and Saturday morning, gardai found her body in the garden. Gardai have asked anyone who met her at the disco or passed through or near the laneway between Thursday night and Saturday morning to contact them at Ballina station (tel: 096-73999).
A preliminary post-mortem was carried out on Ms Thornton yesterday by the State Pathologist, Dr John Harbison, but gardai have said they do not want to reveal yet how she was killed.
Ms Thornton, who was single, lived with her family at Moy Heights in Ballina, and worked in the family pub at Garden Street. Detectives are working on the theory that she may have been accompanied from the disco or met someone she knew as she made her way along the lane.
Meanwhile, four men were arrested in Co Galway yesterday by gardai investigating the "suspicious death" of a Chinese man who died in hospital on Friday.
Mr Kwok Keung Song (50), who owned a restaurant in Tuam, suffered severe head injuries during a fracas in the centre of the town early last Monday.
He was brought to University College Hospital in Galway by ambulance, but died on Friday afternoon. A post-mortem was due to be carried out late last night.
A Garda spokesman confirmed that four men were taken into custody yesterday and detained under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act. Two of them were later released.
The four men arrested are understood to be from Tuam and Milltown in Galway.