Gardai are still appealing for people to contact them about the murder of Dublin woman, Sinead Kelly. A man who phoned RTE on Monday and two other men, including a taxi driver, who may have seen the suspect have not yet contacted gardai.
A senior Garda source has confirmed that the gardai who found Ms Kelly's body had spoken to her around a half an hour before she was murdered. The gardai, stopped their patrol car and spoke to Ms Kelly at Herbert Place during a routine patrol of the area around 1 a.m.
They responded to a call less than an hour later after residents heard screaming sometime around 1.50 a.m. The gardai found Ms Kelly's dead body lying face up on the canal bank. She had been stabbed 14 times with a long-bladed knife.
The search of the canal between Baggot Street Bridge and Mount Street Bridge continued yesterday. A knife was found, but it was badly rusted and believed to have been in the canal for some time. The area above Baggot Street Bridge will also be searched, as a male suspect seen running from the scene could have thrown the knife on the other side of the bridge.
Supt John McLoughlin said gardai had still not heard from any of the men they had asked to contact them. The man seen running away is believed to have been startled by another man, whom gardai also want to interview. The suspect is then believed to have taken a red taxi outside the Abrakebabra premises on Baggot Street. Neither the second man nor the taxi-driver contacted gardai.
Supt McLoughlin said it was unusual that the taxi-driver who took the fare had not been in contact. Taxi companies had put out appeals for drivers to contact them and there was a good history of co-operation with gardai. Supt McLoughlin said the motive for the murder was still unclear.
Supt McLoughlin said gardai are extremely anxious to talk to a man who phoned RTE twice on Monday morning, and identified Ms Kelly as the victim before she had been identified formally by gardai. "Hopefully, some people might come back to us at the weekend when all the publicity has died down," the superintendent said.
Ms Kelly's body was found without belongings, other than the clothes she wore. Other prostitutes said sometimes they hide bags in undergrowth in the area before they start soliciting. The search for the murder weapon will include a search for any belongings Ms Kelly may have hidden.
She is believed to have operated her patch on Herbert Place alone, unlike other young heroin addicts, who are known to bring boyfriends as a form of "protection". The young addicts are known to give money from their first client to their boyfriends so he can buy drugs for both of them.
The suspect is described as being in his early to mid-20s, around 5 feet 11 inches, of athletic build, wearing a black polo neck and clean-shaven with short, dark hair. The incident line at Harcourt Terrace Garda Station is (01) 661 7104.
