GARDAÍ ARE hoping a postmortem being carried out last night on the human remains discovered in the Wicklow mountains will enable them to identify the deceased.
While gardaí have not disclosed whether the remains are those of a male or female, they were located during a search for the body of missing Roma woman Marioara Rostas (19).
Ms Rostas was last seen begging at traffic lights in Dublin’s south inner city in January 2008.
The remains were uncovered yesterday in an isolated area close to the Kippure estate on the Sally Gap to Manor Kilbride road. The Garda search centred on a wooded area owned by Coillte, the State forestry company.
The search began 10 days ago after officers received information that pinpointed a specific location as the burial site and in the morning human remains wrapped in plastic bags were found in a grave several feet deep.
After the discovery the State Pathologist’s office was informed and the force’s excavation of the area stopped. Deputy State Pathologist Dr Khalid Jabir attended the scene and conducted a preliminary examination of the body before it was taken to Tallaght hospital for a postmortem.
Members of the Garda Technical Bureau then began examining the area around the grave for any possible evidence that may have lain there since the body was dumped.
That examination is expected to continue all of today and may continue for much of the week.
Now that gardaí have found what is believed to be Ms Rostas’s remains and have identified a murder suspect, any forensic evidence that might be found at the scene to link the suspect to the site could solve the crime.
The search for Ms Rostas’s remains was the latest development in an ongoing investigation into her disappearance. She is presumed to have been shot dead.
While a gangland criminal from the capital’s south inner city is suspected of central involvement in the murder, investigating officers have not discounted the theory that the fatal shots were fired by another, 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. 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, Dublin, on Sunday, January 6th, 2008, at Pearse Street junction. She was seen talking to a man, believed to be the gangland suspect, in a car described as a silver Ford Mondeo.
She got into his car and is believed to have been driven to a house in the south inner city where she was held against her will before being sexually assaulted, shot and buried.
The remains are expected to be confirmed this morning as those of Ms Rostas. Because she has been dead for four years, the exact cause of death may be difficult to determine but Garda sources said if she had been shot dead, as they believed, that should be confirmed by the postmortem.