Gardaí in Cork are expected to formally begin a murder investigation following the completion of a postmortem on the body of a 38-year-old mother-of-one found with stab wounds in a house in the city on Friday night.
Chief State Pathologist Dr Linda Mulligan began her postmortem on the body of the woman at the morgue at Cork University Hospital on Saturday afternoon after the deceased’s remains were removed from a house at Cardinal Court in Wilton on Saturday morning.
The body of the woman, an Indian national, was found by the emergency services when they received a call from a man at the house at about 10.10pm on Friday. They found the woman lying in a pool of blood and with a stab wound to her neck in a bedroom of the house.
The woman was pronounced dead at the scene by a local doctor and a 41-year-old man was arrested by gardaí and taken to Togher Garda station for questioning about the death.
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The suspect was detained under section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act which allows gardaí hold suspects for up to 24 hours before they must be charged or released. It is understood that questioning was suspended overnight so gardaí could hold him until early on Sunday.
“We are waiting for the results of the postmortem which are likely later this afternoon and that will determine the exact course of our investigation but suffice it to say that we have arrested a suspect and we are not looking for anybody else in connection with this incident,” said a Garda source.
Gardaí now believe that the woman was dead for several hours before she was discovered in the house and the alarm was only raised when she failed to collect her five-year-old son from a friend’s house after the friend had collected the child from a summer camp.
The friend brought the child back to his home at Cardinal Court where he met the suspect who informed him that the child’s mother had been stabbed and the friend raised the alarm, alerting the emergency services and the gardaí.
Gardaí cordoned off the scene at the two-storey terraced house immediately upon discovery of the woman’s body. It is understood that Garda technical experts recovered a knife at the scene which has been sent for forensic analysis to try to establish if it was the weapon used to kill the woman.
An incident room has been set up at Togher Garda station and gardaí have begun door-to-door inquiries in the Cardinal Court area of Wilton to establish if any of the neighbours heard any noise or disturbance or were aware of any incident in the house.
They have also been trying to make contact with friends of the dead woman to try to establish when she was last seen alive, while they are also trying to establish the suspect’s movements on Friday as it now appears the woman may have been dead for some hours when she was found.
Gardaí say they are not releasing the name of the dead woman until all kin are notified but they have appealed to anyone who can assist them in their investigation to contact Togher Garda station on (021) 494 7120 or the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111 or any Garda station.
