British police investigating the suspected serial killing of women in Birmingham will today exhume the body of a 47-year-old woman from a cemetery in Athlone, Co Westmeath.
The investigation is the largest in the UK, with police sources reporting that up to 40 murders of women dating back to the 1980s are under re-examination.
Yesterday, the team of officers from the West Midlands Police arrived in Athlone and were being assisted by local gardai in preparation for the exhumation of Mrs Patricia Lynott.
She met her death in Birmingham last October.
The Garda Press Office said last night the Garda were assisting the West Midlands Police and that the exhumation was part of an investigation into a "suspected suspicious death".
Mrs Lynott's remains were returned to Ireland on November 2nd, 2000 for burial in Athlone. She was separated and had two children. She had lived in Birmingham for almost 10 years.
A major investigation into unsolved murders of women has been under way in the midlands area of Britain since 1996. A task force from several police forces in central England was set up to investigate the killings of young women dating back to 1986, after common features were identified in a series of midlands murders during the 1990s.
The latest DNA procedures and database information are being applied to cases which had gone cold.
Mrs Lynott's body will be examined by the State pathologist, Dr John Harbison, before re-interment. The West Midlands Police team will be able to use evidence from this post-mortem as evidence in the UK.
The remains will be returned to Athlone later this evening, where Mrs Lynott's family will conduct a private burial.
A spokesman for the West Midlands police said: "An inquest into the woman's death was previously opened in Birmingham and adjourned for further investigations to take place."