Gardaí investigating the murder of a 17-year-old Swiss language student in Galway have not ruled out the possibility that it may be linked to several recent sexual assaults in the city centre.
Supt Tom Curley, who is leading the investigation, confirmed gardaí were investigating several cases of sexual assault in the Ceannt station and city centre area, which had occurred over the last three months.
One man had been arrested in relation to a reported assault in late September, and had been subsequently released, and files were being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.
"We are keeping an open mind . . . we can't discount anything at this stage", Supt Curley said. "I am not linking this to this case," he added. "This is a murder investigation, the other investigations were sexual assaults."
Postmortem results showed that Manuela Riedo, a student from Berne who had only been in Galway for three days, died from asphyxiation, he said. An only child, Ms Reido's parents Arlettte and Hans are due to travel to Galway today, and gardaí have appointed a liaison officer to work with a senior Swiss embassy official who was also en route to Galway last evening.
Ms Riedo was one of a group of 43 students in final year in school near Berne, who had arrived in Dublin airport on Saturday night. The group then travelled to Galway for a two-week English language course.
She was one of seven of the group assigned to the Galway Language Centre in Bridge Mills, Galway, while her 36 colleagues were assigned to two other language institutes in the city.
Ms Riedo, who would have celebrated her 18th birthday on November 5th, was one of two students staying with a host family in Renmore Park. She was last seen between 7pm and 7.30pm on Monday when she left her lodgings at Renmore Park to attend a meeting with fellow students and their accompanying teachers in the King's Head pub in Galway's Shop Street.
She never made it to the meeting, and gardaí believe she may have died where her body was found. It was spotted by a passerby at 9.30am on Tuesday, within a half-mile of where she was staying, on an embankment below the "military walk" pedestrian route.
The walkway runs parallel to the Galway-Dublin railway line between Ceannt station and Garrison church at Dún Mhaolíosa army barracks, Renmore, bordered by the coastline and the southern shore of Lough Atalia.
Speaking at a press briefing in Mill Street Garda station yesterday, Supt Curley said she was reported missing when she did not turn up for her language class on Tuesday morning. The owner of the house had seen her leaving on Monday night and had set her breakfast place the following day. "He noticed then that she hadn't returned home," Supt Curley said.
Supt Curley's team is being assisted by officers from the National Bureau of Criminal Investigations (NBCI). He would not comment on injuries she had sustained, and appealed for witnesses who may have seen Ms Riedo on Sunday and Monday.
Ms Riedo was about 5ft 4in in height and weighed 56kg, had brown, shoulder-length hair and a small diamond nose stud.
She was wearing a pair of calf-length black suede boots, a grey sleeve top with narrow pink stripes, over which she wore a red and black cardigan with a black diamond on the back. She was wearing a grey and black herringbone waist-length coat, a pair of grey jeans, and carried a large black handbag with a cherry pattern on it.
She wore a silver band on her middle finger, and had costume jewellery with a marble stone on her right hand.
Supt Curley said: "we know that she used the walkway that runs parallel with the railway line, and I am appealing to anyone with information who may have seen her on the Sunday and also on Monday - particularly from Monday evening at 7 o'clock until her body was discovered by a passerby at 9.30am on Tuesday".
Supt Curley said he would also be appealing to anyone in the vicinity of Ceannt rail and bus station who may have seen anything suspicious on Monday night or Tuesday morning to come forward.
The investigation team was collecting CCTV footage in all these areas, which would assist them, and were aware that she had been socialising in Shop Street on Sunday night.
"I would appeal to these people to come forward. They may think that it's irrelevant, but let us decide," he said.
Supt Curley said that statements were being taken from all of Ms Riedo's fellow students to help them with their inquiries. The scene at Lough Atalia comprised 15 to 20 acres and was still being preserved for further searches and examinations.
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