Colleagues at hospital express shock at killing

NEIGHBOURS of the dead woman were reluctant to talk yesterday as friends and relatives of the Diver family began arriving at her Walkinstown home. The house, at Kilnamanagh Road, is less than a mile from where she was found strangled in her car late on Monday night.

Staff at the Coombe Women's Hospital were said to be very shocked at the death of a colleague who had finished her evening shift on Monday night a short time before her murder.

"I knew her just from seeing her around with the two kids," a woman who lived opposite the Divers' house said. "But I'd rather not say anything more. It's not an appropriate time."

The woman in the house next door declined to comment other than to say she had not seen the family since the tragedy. An elderly man living nearby said he did not want to talk about what had happened. "You'll excuse me, but I don't want to have to deal with anything like this."

Officials at the Coombe hospital declined to speak directly to the media. In a statement issued through a public relations company, the hospital's board of management expressed shock and deep sadness at the death of a "valued and popular member of staff in the admissions office".

The statement extended sympathy to her family, friends and colleagues.