Gardai expand investigation into woman's murder

Gardaí investigating the murder of Rachel O'Reilly have expanded their search for evidence in an attempt to place a car driven by the chief suspect close to the scene of the crime on the morning of the murder.

Detectives are continuing to enhance CCTV images of vehicles which travelled the roads to and from the O'Reilly family home near Naul village, north Co Dublin, on October 4th, the morning the mother of two was killed.

Senior officers working on the case believe some of the CCTV images show the chief suspect's car close to the O'Reilly family home at about the time of the killing, when the suspect claims he was 15 miles away working in Dublin's north inner city.

However, the CCTV images are poor and, while gardaí believe the vehicle shown is the suspect's car, it has not yet been possible to get a positive identification of him or a car registration number from the images.

The model of car owned by the suspect is not common on Irish roads, and gardaí are now tracing other owners of that make of car in the Republic in an effort to eliminate them from the images taken on October 4th. Senior Garda sources said slow progress was being made.

Gardaí are also focusing their efforts on a number of other areas. They are continuing to test an alibi provided by a workmate of the chief suspect who has told gardaí the suspect was with him at around 9.30 a.m. on October 4th, when Ms O'Reilly was killed. A source said this alibi "is being gone through in minute detail".

Gardaí believe the man providing the alibi has been less than truthful under questioning and they are confident their continuing investigation of him will expose this. The alibi is being tested through the examination of CCTV images in and around the area that the suspect and his workmate claim they were working at the time of the murder.

Ms O'Reilly (30) was found dead at her home in Baldarragh by her mother, Ms Rose Callely. The alarm was raised when Ms O'Reilly failed to collect one of her two children from a creche. She was killed after receiving several blows to the head with a blunt instrument.

Three people, including the chief suspect, his male colleague and a female friend were arrested and questioned by gardaí last month but were released without charge.