Man found dead on beach had serious head wounds

A man found dead on a beach by a woman out for her morning walk had suffered serious head wounds consistent with being beaten and stabbed.

Gardaí believe the victim, who is aged 44 and from Lithuania, was dumped on Mornington beach, Co Meath, late on Monday night or the early hours of yesterday morning after being fatally attacked elsewhere.

The investigating team based in Laytown Garda station, Co Meath, yesterday sealed off a rented house on Marsh Road near Drogheda. They believe the victim had been at the location at or just before the time of his death, though it is unknown if he was attacked there. The property was yesterday examined by members of the Garda Technical Bureau and blood believed to be the dead man's was found at the scene.

Liaison officer
The victim has been identified and gardaí have appointed a liaison officer to assist his family members in Lithuania. The alarm was raised at about 9.30am yesterday when a woman walking her dog on Mornington beach found the man's remains. Immediately the body was found, gardaí were alerted and uniformed members from Laytown Garda station arrived on the scene and sealed off a wide area. The body was left undisturbed pending the arrival of State Pathologist Prof Marie Cassidy. She carried out a preliminary examination on the beach, before the body was taken away just before lunchtime for a postmortem.

That examination was still ongoing late last night but Garda sources confirmed the man had visible signs of being beaten and stabbed in the head and face. As well as examining the house on Marsh Road, members of the technical bureau also searched a large area of beach near where the victim's body was found.

Incident room
Gardaí have appealed for anyone who may have seen anything unusual or the movement of vehicles on or near the beach late on Monday night or early yesterday morning to contact the incident room at Laytown station. The same sources said they had discounted any possibility that the man had at some point been in the water and his body washed on to that section of coastline.

“He was attacked somewhere else and was probably dead already when he was left on the beach,” said one source.

“Whoever was behind it probably panicked and moved him to the beach hoping they couldn’t be connected to what was after happening.” Gardaí spent yesterday trying to piece together the dead man’s movements in an effort to establish the last confirmed sighting of him alive.