There was shock in Ballymena, Co Antrim, last night as details emerged of the murder of a woman who was strangled and whose body was wrapped in a duvet cover before being dumped at the rear of a church.
Shirley Finlay (24), who was described as a "vulnerable" loner with psychiatric issues, would have celebrated her 25th birthday today.
Detectives are working on the possibility that she was sexually assaulted before being strangled.
Her body was discovered at 3.20pm on Tuesday by a shop worker beside the rear of a hall belonging to Hill Street Baptist church. Police think she was killed elsewhere before being taken to the church grounds.
The waste ground is now used as a car park but it once housed the church manse and DUP leader Dr Ian Paisley lived there for a few years as a boy when his father was pastor.
The murder is the second in the town in five days.
One member of the Baptist Church congregation said: "The circumstances of the murder have stunned everyone but it has really been a talking point that someone chose to take the body to the rear of the church to be discovered.
"We don't know if they knew that there was a wall there and that it would be secluded and may not have been discovered for a few days or if the person was having some sort of pangs of guilt and thought it best to leave the body outside a church to aid in giving her a Christian burial."
Shirley Finlay lived in a block of six flats at Crebilly Road, Ballykeel, about two miles from where her body was found at Mount Street. Police want to trace her movements in the 24 hours before her body was found and have appealed for information.
Det Chief Insp Tom Woods, speaking during a press conference, said the Ms Finlay had a "care" background and was fostered as a child.
"We know she was a very vulnerable young lady, that she would have been a loner and that she walked regularly throughout the Ballymena area."
He said the death was the "most horrible and brutal crime" he had investigated in his 28 years as a detective.
He said police did not have any firm motive and they were working on a number of lines of inquiry including a possible sexual motive.
Last Friday Stanley John Andrews (50) was murdered in a Simon Community hostel in the Dunclug estate. A 23-year-old man, also a hostel resident, has been charged with this murder.
Ballymena schoolboy Michael McIlveen (15), a Catholic, was beaten to death in May.