Foursnifferdogs brought to housefor second searchafter bodyfound
Barry Roche,
Southern Correspondent
Gardaí investigating the murder of Waterford woman Meg Walsh have carried out an examination of her home in the city using specialist sniffer dogs brought in from Britain to see if they could find any evidence of her being killed at her house.
Three sniffer dogs from Wales along with a specialist sniffer dog from Yorkshire searched the detached house at Ballinakill Downs where Ms Walsh lived with her husband, bus driver John O'Brien.
The house had been examined by Garda technical experts in the week following Ms Walsh's disappearance on October 1st but gardaí later handed back the house to Mr O'Brien.
However on Sunday, following the discovery of Ms Walsh's naked and badly beaten body in the River Suir, gardaí under Supt Dave Sheahan took possession of the house again and cordoned it off for further examination by the specialist dog units from Britain.
One of the dogs, Keela, an English springer spaniel belonging to the South Yorkshire Police, has been used by police forces all over the UK and by the FBI in the US to locate blood and other human fluids for evidential purposes.
According to a spokesman for South Yorkshire Police, Keela has been "specifically trained to detect minute human blood deposits" and can pinpoint deposits which are not detected by present forensic techniques.
Gardaí believe the dogs may be able to uncover any traces of blood or other human tissue belonging to Ms Walsh which could throw light on where exactly she was murdered in an attempt to move forward their investigation into her killing.
Supt Sheahan confirmed that gardaí are treating Ms Walsh's home as a crime scene and hope the search by the sniffer dogs will find some previously missed evidence.
He confirmed that the specialist dogs - who are accompanied by their handlers - will be available to gardaí for a number of days and they expect to use them at a number of locations around Waterford.
"We're also very anxious to locate where exactly Ms Walsh's body was dumped in the Suir and in that regard we will be using the sniffer dogs in searches along the river to try and locate where her killer disposed of her body."
Supt Sheahan also confirmed that gardaí are strongly of the belief that Ms Walsh's killer used her silver Mitsubishi Carisma car registration 01 W 2060 to transport and dispose of her body by dumping it in the river.
He said they had received a good response from the public to a reconstruction in which gardaí placed two similar Mitsubishi Carisma cars fitted with the same plates as Ms Walsh's car in two locations in Waterford city.
"The incident room was swamped with calls immediately after we carried out the reconstruction and we are currently working through those calls and assessing the information we received in the hope it will help us progress our inquiry," he said.
According to a senior Garda source, the movements of Ms Walsh's car following the last confirmed sighting at her home at 6am on October 1st and before it was found in the Uluru car park at 1.03am on October 4th are critical.
"A huge amount revolves around the movements of the car - if we can get information on that we believe we will make significant progress in bringing this investigation to a successful conclusion," said the source.
Meanwhile a rosary for Ms Walsh took place at Fermoy Hospital last night. Her body will be removed from the hospital tonight at 7pm to St Nicholas's church in her native Killavullen for requiem Mass at noon on Thursday.