Maria McConnell (22) rarely went downtown. She was shy, her mother says, certainly not streetwise. She was on medication for depression when she left her west Belfast home two Saturdays ago for a rare night out. She took just £15. She never returned.
Everyone thought she was beautiful, with her long black hair and striking blue eyes. The photograph of her on the poster seems to have been taken at a formal gathering. She is wearing diamond earrings and a blue satin dress.
Maria looked trendier in black trousers and a top, leaving Vico's nightclub in the city centre that Saturday night with a man. They were filmed on closed-circuit TV. The man told the RUC that Maria got out of the taxi at Elmwood Avenue in the university area while he went on to Finaghy. The taxi-driver has not been traced.
When their daughter didn't come home, Nuala and Frank McConnell contacted the police. They made an emotional television appeal for information. Posters of Maria went up in shops, pubs, parks and cinemas.
At 2.a.m. yesterday, RUC officers visited a house in Canterbury Street, five minutes from where Maria is reported to have got out of the taxi. They were alerted after a series of anonymous phone calls from a man. The body of a young woman was found, face downwards, in a back bedroom. There was evidence of a violent attack. The RUC said the discovery was "gruesome and distressing". A 20-year-old man has been arrested.
Police will not detail what injuries the victim sustained. The house is unoccupied; female students who lived there moved out last month. Neighbours saw or heard nothing. RUC forensic scientists spent all day there yesterday. They removed quilts, pillows and clothes. Several phone boxes nearby were sealed and fingerprinted. They are appealing for the anonymous male caller to come forward.
The RUC said it could take some time to identify the body formally, but last night her mother said: "We don't expect Maria to come home. It was her first night ever out on her own."