A POSTMORTEM will be carried out this morning on the body of a woman found washed up on a beach in Co Clare early yesterday.
Gardaí have confirmed they are treating the death as suspicious and are known to be satisfied the body is that of Deirdre McCarthy (43) of Ballyvaughan.
The body was found on Fanore beach, about 15km from Ballyvaughan. A man out walking saw saw it at about 7.40am and reported it. It was removed to the Mid Western Regional Hospital in Limerick for a postmortem this morning. Gardaí said formal identification would not take place before then.
Garda Supt Peter Duff said: “We are treating this death as suspicious. A postmortem examination will take place in Limerick and we will know more after that.”
It is understood investigators have secured CCTV footage from businesses and will check this in an effort to establish Ms McCarthy’s last movements.
She had been socialising locally on Sunday night and gardaí are trying to establish who dropped her home. They are satisfied she did enter her home, as the clothing she was wearing on Sunday was found inside.
Local priest Fr Richard Flanagan, who has been liaising with and comforting the McCarthy family, said: “The is a small but very tight-knit community and everyone is totally shocked by Deirdre’s death. Deirdre was a lovely quiet girl but very nervous and did not like the dark at all. That’s why we thought it was out of character for her just to go off by herself.”