A 23-year-old man is to appear at a special court sitting this morning in connection with the murder of Frankie Heneghan in Kiltimagh, Co Mayo, earlier this week. The suspect was charged in Swinford Garda station yesterday evening with the murder of the 24-year-old construction worker.
He is due to appear before a special sitting of Swinford District Court at 10.30am today.
The suspect was arrested at about 11.30am on Thursday morning under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act which allowed him be held for 24 hours without charge.
A second man, arrested on Wednesday evening, was released without charge early yesterday.
Mr Heneghan, who lived with his partner Grace and their two children at Balla, near Castlebar, died in a laneway off Main Street, Kiltimagh, in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
An autopsy at Mayo General Hospital in Castlebar ascertained that he died from multiple stab wounds.
The dead man’s body had not been released for burial up to last night.
According to one of the victim’s uncles, Stephen Guthrie, this was causing extra upset for the family who were anxious to lay the remains of their loved one to rest.
Mr Guthrie thanked the community for their support for the family at a time of great emotional distress and he urged anybody with information about the murder to pass it on to the Garda authorities.
“The whole family are very thankful to the people of Kiltimagh and the many who have had the courage to come forward and assist the Garda murder investigation,” he said.
Frankie, who was the youngest of a family of nine, five girls and four boys, came from a highly respectable family who were “absolutely devastated by the awfulness of what had happened”, he added.