Gardaí in Cork have upgraded to murder their investigation into the death of a man whose body was found in a house on the southside of the city on Saturday.
A postmortem on the 55-year-old, named locally as Paul Jones, was completed on Sunday and found he had “met with foul play”.
The body of Mr Jones was found in the living area of a single storey rented house in Bandon Road in the Lough area.
The dead man is originally from Mayfield on the northside of Cork city. His body was found by his son when he went to the house on the southside of Cork city at 11.30am on Saturday.
The man’s son had been trying to phone him for a number of days. He decided to go to the house after he was unable to reach his father by phone. When the emergency services turned over the man’s body they found blood. There was no sign of a forced entry at the property. The scene was examined by members of the Divisional Scenes of Crime Unit.
The body of the deceased was removed on Saturday evening to the morgue at Cork University Hospital.
The postmortem examination carried out on Sunday afternoon by Assistant State Pathologist Dr Linda Mulligan determined that the man was murdered.
The results of the examination were not released for operational reasons but gardaí say a full murder investigation has begun.
Appeal
Gardaí in Cork have appealed to the public for information. Officers investigating the death are keen to to speak to anyone who may have seen anything suspicious in the Bandon Road/McCurtain Villas area of the city over the last six days.
They have also asked motorists who may have dash cam footage from the area to please contact the incident room at Anglesea Street in Cork.
Gardaí have begun door to door calls in the area in order to establish if anyone noticed anything suspicious in the locality over the past few days.
They have also begun tracing the man’s last known movements. Gardaí are examining CCTV footage to try and establish when he last left the property or to see if anyone called to the house.
Anyone with information is asked to contact gardaí in Anglesea Street station on 021-4522000, the Garda Confidential Line 1800-666 111 or any Garda station. – Additional reporting PA