Gardai investigating the killing of Deirdre Crowley by her father, Christopher, in Clonmel, Co Tipperary, last week have threatened to prosecute anyone who helped the former schoolteacher to evade the law.
A Garda spokesman said detectives were trying to piece together Mr Crowley's movements since he abducted his daughter from the home of his estranged partner in Co Cork in December 1999.
The question of whether someone aided and abetted the 44-year-old man, who shot himself dead after killing his daughter, "would form part of the investigation", the spokesman said. He added, however, that "it's too early to say whether anyone would be prosecuted".
It is understood gardai have interviewed a woman, who had been in a relationship with Mr Crowley and met him frequently while he was in hiding in Clonmel.
Believed to be a former pupil of Mr Crowley, she was said to have helped him to rent out the house in which the killings occurred last Thursday.
She has told gardai, however, she was unaware of any potential threat to Deirdre's life - the killings occurred after local gardai called to the house and spoke with Mr Crowley but did not arrest him.
He was able to go back into the house, where minutes later he turned a shotgun - which he had stolen from the home of a school caretaker before his disappearance - on his daughter and himself.
An internal Garda investigation has been opened to see what happened in the chain of command preceding the incident. Meanwhile, it appeared yesterday that a call for a Dail inquiry into the killings will not be heeded.
The Fianna Fail TD for Carlow/Kilkenny, Mr John McGuinness, said he would ask the justice committee of the Dail to investigate all aspects of the case, including the Garda handling of it.
Hearings by a subcommittee of the Dail into the Abbeylara shooting of Mr John Carthy are still blocked, following legal action by nine members of the Garda's Emergency Response Unit.
The justice committee's chairman, Mr Sean Ardagh (FF), last night refused to discuss Mr McGuinness's call. However, the committee's vice-chairwoman, the Fine Gael TD Ms Monica Barnes, said there was no prospect of any such inquiry until the Abbeylara court action ends.
The Clonmel case, she said, highlighted the need for a body to independently investigate controversial Garda cases.
Supporting his call for a TDs' inquiry, Mr McGuinness said: "There is public disquiet about all of this and I believe people would want to see an independent investigation carried out. It should look at all aspects of the case, including the Garda handling of it since Deirdre was kidnapped."