A 20-year-old man has been charged with the murder of Ms Maria McConnell, whose body was found a fortnight after she disappeared. He will appear before Belfast Magistrates Court today.
The man was arrested last Thursday, just hours after the body of Ms McConnell (22) was found in the back bedroom of an unoccupied house in Canterbury Street in the university area of Belfast. Her disappearance prompted one of the biggest missing person inquiries in the North. The RUC was alerted to the house after a series of anonymous telephone calls from a man. A forensic examination of the house has been carried out. Ms McConnell was last seen alive leaving Vico's nightclub in Brunswick Street. She was filmed on CCTV getting into a taxi with a man, who said she had got out in the university area and he had gone on to Finaghy. Police have renewed their appeal for the taxi-driver to contact them.
Ms McConnell is to be buried on Thursday. She lived with her parents at Coolnasilla Park, Andersonstown, in west Belfast. She rarely left the area and it was the first time that she had gone for a night out on her own.