A postmortem examination is to be carried out today on the body of a woman which was discovered in the boot of a car in west Dublin yesterday evening.
The decomposed remains were found in a car in a car park lock-up on Aylmer Road in the village of Newcastle at 5pm. Gardaí believe the body was most likely in the boot of the car for a number of weeks.
Gardaí had not formally identified the remains last night but there are fears that they may be that of Helen Donegan (30), who was reported missing almost seven weeks ago.
Ms Donegan was last seen by her partner at her home at St Patrick’s Park, Celbridge, Co Kildare, at 8am on May 6th. She was reported missing by her partner the following day and a missing person’s investigation was begun.
A man was arrested after the discovery and was taken to Clondalkin Garda station for questioning. The 45-year-old was detained under section 50 of the Criminal Justice Act 2007. He can be held for up to seven days.
Gardaí in Celbridge feared for her safety from the time she was reported missing. Garda sources said the missing woman’s family was very anxious to trace her.
People known to Ms Donegan have been interviewed by detectives trying to establish her whereabouts. A number of areas have also been searched, including the lock-up yesterday evening when the remains were found.
Gardaí have traced the owner of the lock-up and have spoken to him. However, they believe this man does not own the car in which the badly decomposed remains were found.
Detectives investigating the case are working on a number of lines of inquiry and are hopeful of an early breakthrough.
A shotgun has been taken by gardaí for forensic and ballistics tests in an effort to determine if it is in any way linked to the death of the woman. It was not found with the remains. It has been in the possession of the Garda for a number of weeks.
Immediately after the discovery of the body was made, gardaí sealed off the area. The State Pathologist’s office was informed and a postmortem is expected to be completed this morning.
The course of the Garda investigation will be determined by the outcome of the postmortem.
However, Garda sources said they believed the woman was killed and they expect to upgrade their inquiries from a suspicious death case to a murder investigation.
The lock-up where the body was found will be examined today by the Garda Technical Bureau.
