THE 16-day delay in discovering the body of the murdered civil servant, Ms Marilyn Rynn, may have badly affected forensic clues in the investigation into her murder.
Preliminary results from a lengthy post-mortem carried out on Sunday suggested that Ms Rynn (41) had been raped and strangled.
The delay in recovering Ms Rynn's body, following the delay of a week in recovering a body in Phoenix Park after it was reported to gardai, was causing concern in west Dublin, according to local Fianna Fail TD Mr Liam Lawlor.
However, there was also some disquiet among detectives about the delay in finding Ms Rynn's remains and the damage this might do to the investigation.
Ms Rynn's body was found last Sunday morning in undergrowth at Tolka Valley Park between the bus stop where she alighted in the early hours of Friday, December 22nd, and her home in Brookhaven Park.
There are only two routes between the bus stop and Ms Rynn's home. The shorter of the routes, which she appeared to have taken, went through the park. It is believed she was waylaid there and murdered.
According to local gardai the investigation into her disappearance was initially delayed because gardai did not receive a missing person report until the evening of December 26th.
Among the first, detailed eyewitness accounts, in response to Garda appeals, were two from a boy and his teenage sister who lived near Ms Rynn and who both claimed to have seen her alive on the morning of December 22nd, waiting for a bus into Dublin. However, her clocking-in record at the National Roads Authority indicated her last day at work was on Thursday, December 21st.
Ms Rynn attended a staff Christmas party that evening in the Shieling Hotel, Raheny. She hailed a passing taxi outside the hotel at 2 a.m. which is believed to have taken her to O'Connell Street where she waited in Eddie Rockets' Diner until she caught the 3 a.m. Niteline bus to Blanchardstown.
Ms Rynn's body had lain in undergrowth near the Tolka for 16 days by the time it was recovered in the Garda's first methodical search of the linear park on Sunday morning. It is understood that it only took the search team 15 minutes to find the body after arriving at the park.
Mr Lawlor said he had received many calls from concerned constituents following the recent discovery of a body in the Phoenix Park in December and the horrific murder of Ms Rynn. The body in the Phoenix Park, of an elderly man who had died of exposure, had lain in situ for a week after it was reported to gardai by a rambler.
The removal of Ms Rynn's remains took place yesterday evening at St Matthew's Church in Ballyfermot, and the burial will follow Requiem Mass this morning at 11 am.