Postmortem on skeletal remains found in Rathmines to take place next week

Skeletal remains found in Rathmines last week will not be the subject of a postmortem until next Tuesday, gardaí have said.

The partial human remains were found on a common area on a site off the Lower Rathmines Road in Dublin on Thursday, April 9th as work was being carried out on the site.

No clothing remained on the skeletal remains and there had been no apparent effort to bury them.

A forensic anthropologist visited the site late last week to carry out inquiries, as did members of the Garda Technical Bureau. The remains were brought to Dublin City mortuary where they remain.

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Efforts have been ongoing to identify the person through DNA testing. This is lengthy process as any DNA extracted needs to be cross-referenced with a long list of missing persons’ DNA. A Garda source said there is no guarantee the remains will ever be identified.

The bones are believed to be those of someone aged between five and 20 years old. Gardaí say the direction of the investigation will be dictated by the results of the postmortem. However, there is no guarantee the examination will reveal the cause of death, the same source said.

Gardaí are not clear if the person died and their body lay undiscovered at the location for a period or if the person died elsewhere and the bones were placed there.

The remains will be examined by the State Pathologist’s Office on Tuesday, April 21st. A Garda spokesman said an update on the investigation will likely follow.

A Department of Justice spokesman said when asked that the Covid-19 crisis is not causing a backlog in postmortem examinations.

According to the Coroners Society of Ireland most Covid-19 deaths do not require a postmortem"unless other circumstances are present and the law mandates an autopsy to be directed by the coroner".