Body may be linked to prior killing

Gardaí are investigating the possibility that the discovery of headless, dismembered human remains in the Royal Canal, Dublin, last week may be connected to the murder of Malawian woman Paiche Onyemaechi in Co Kilkenny last summer.

The headless body of the 24-year-old daughter of the Malawian chief justice was found on the bank of the River Pil, Piltown, Co Kilkenny. Her head was never found but gardaí identified her by cross-checking her fingerprints against the asylum-seeker database.

It is understood that gardaí are investigating the possibility that the remains discovered in the Royal Canal may be those of her estranged husband, Chika Onyemaechi, who has been missing since his wife's murder.

Gardaí at the national immigration bureau were yesterday trying to match fingerprints taken from the body to their files and were not yet in a position to confirm the name of the dead man. They have confirmed the remains were those of a black man aged between 20 and 30.

A post mortem revealed the man was stabbed to death before he was dismembered and his remains dumped in black plastic in the canal at Ballybough Bridge near Croke Park. While the man's torso and severed legs and arms were taken from the canal, his head has not yet been found.

Detectives believe the body was in the canal for two weeks but that the victim was murdered elsewhere.

The body had decomposed and discoloured to such an extent that until the post mortem was concluded gardaí believed the remains were those of a white man.

Gardaí displayed clothing taken from the body, at a press conference in Dublin on Saturday, in the hope they might assist in identifying the man.

They are also appealing to landlords to check their rented accommodation for any tenants who may be unaccounted for, and to members of ethnic communities to come forward with any information that could be related to the missing man.

Gardaí had been searching for Chika Onyemaechi since he failed to turn up for his wife's funeral in Waterford. The couple had been living in the city since 2000 and had two Irish-born children before their split in 2003.