Police in Limavady were yesterday still questioning the boyfriend of a local girl who was murdered in the Co Derry town on Wednesday night. George Jacksonreports.
The body of Wendy McAteer (17) was found at 10.30pm on Wednesday, hours after she had left a bar in the town centre. She had sustained a number of head injuries.
The man in custody is the victim's 30-year-old boyfriend, who had moved to the town this year from England. It is believed he and Ms McAteer lived together in a house in the Sperrin Road area of Limavady.
Ms McAteer's body was found in a laneway at Blackburn Path in a Limavady Borough Council-owned park. Prior to her body being found, concerned relatives had reported to the police that she had been involved in an incident. Last July, local man Michael McGinnis was murdered in the same park.
PSNI Det Insp David McConville has appealed for anyone with information about Ms McAteer's movements from the time she left Clark's Bar in Irish Green Street to when her body was found to come forward.
"The victim had sustained head injuries and died at the scene. It is a murder investigation and we have one person in custody. Because of that, there is little else I can say, other than I am satisfied it was not a sectarian incident," he said.
Local parish priest, Fr Michael Collins, administered the Last Rites to Ms McAteer at the scene.
"When you see such a young victim just lying there, it brings home the fragility of life and the dangers parents face when they let their children go outside. It is not a pleasant experience at any time but to be told that somebody so young has been murdered makes it even more difficult," he said.
The teenager's body was found close to St Mary's High School, where she had been a pupil up to last year. The school principal, Celine McKenna, said that the news of the murder had shocked everyone associated with the school.
The body remained at the scene until 10am yesterday, when it was removed for a postmortem examination.