The post-mortem examination of a woman who died following an incident at her home in Tallaght on Sunday night shows that she died from a fractured skull, Dublin gardai said last night.
Gardai were alerted to an incident at the house at Kilmartin Avenue and arrived at 10.30 p.m. on Sunday.
They found the woman, partially clothed, lying in the hall at the end of the stairs.
She was taken to St James's Hospital where she was formally pronounced dead an hour later.
An initial examination indicated injuries to the back of her head but gardai said they would not know the cause of them until the post-mortem examination has been concluded.
The woman was not officially identified but was named locally as Ms Maura Shah (39), a separated mother of two.
One neighbour said a man ran from the house to alert another neighbour that something had happened inside.
Gardai said last night that no-one was in custody in relation to the incident, which was regarded as a "suspicious death". They said that further tests had yet to be carried out on the body. Despite the post-mortem findings, they had not upgraded the inquiry to murder yet.