THE HUNT for the killers' of the Galway man Tom Casey was extended yesterday to four counties as gardai mounted surveillance operations to monitor the movements of a number of suspects.
A team of up to 60 detectives was also in the process of examining possible links between Mr Casey's murder last weekend in Oranmore and other incidents in counties Galway, Roscommon, Tipperary and Clare, where elderly people living alone have been raided.
The gardai have established evidence to link the beatings in December of two elderly farmers living near Portumna and the Casey attack.
In all three cases, the victims were beaten, tied with nylon rope and left bound. Their houses were ransacked and mattresses pulled asunder in the search for money.
As the hunt continued, gardai mounted a series of checkpoints in the region particularly in the Ballinasloe area. They said the force's Emergency Response Unit (ERU), backed up by an Air Corps helicopter, would be joining the operation shortly.
The ERU is made up of armed gardai in jeeps and has been deployed for major terrorist incidents, and murder cases and high profile cash escorts.
Supt Tony Finnerty, who is coordinating the investigation from Mill Street station, said the team was "following a number of lines of inquiry based on information" supplied to them, while an investigation of suspicious car movements in the Oranmore area had been extended to a much wider radius.
Amid reports of an early breakthrough in the case, Supt Finnerty cautioned that, at this stage, the gardai could not yet be said to be following any definite line of inquiry.
However, the public response to an appeal for information had been very good and he was confident that those responsible would be found.
Supt Finnerty confirmed the technical examination of Mr. Casey's house and surrounding area was continuing, with an ongoing evaluation of forensic material, including footprints gathered in the vicinity over the past three days.