A search has resumed today for a man missing off the Co Kerry coast who is the partner of a woman found dead by gardaí at her home in Tralee yesterday.
The woman's two-year-old son was found alone in the house unharmed when gardaí arrived at the scene at 3pm. Garda sources said that it appeared the victim had been dead for a number of hours. She is believed to have been strangled.
The emergency services were alerted just before 3pm after a call to the 999 line. An ambulance rushed to the house in the Deerpark estate on the outskirts of Tralee, where paramedics found the woman's body on a bed in an upstairs room. They immediately alerted gardaí.
Officers from Tralee Garda station arrived and sealed off the property and the two-year-old boy was taken into State care. The dead woman, named locally as Katarzyna Bartowiak, was from Poland and was believed to be in her late 20s.
She had been in Ireland with her Nigerian partner for a number of years and they had a child together, who was found in the house at Deerpark. Ms Bartowiak had worked at Dunnes Stores in Tralee.
One neighbour, who knew the couple well but who did not wish to be named, said they had been living in Deerpark for some months after moving there from another nearby estate.
A search operation began last night for a man who jumped from a cliff into the sea at Ballybunion, Co Kerry shortly after 10pm. The search operation by the Shannon rescue helicopter and the Fenit lifeboat was later called off and was expected to resume this morning.
Gardaí had spent several hours negotiating with the man before he went off the cliff. He is believed to have driven from Tralee to the cliffs at Ballybunion, where he abandoned his vehicle.
A Garda search of the area resulted in the discovery of the man's location and gardaí spent up to six hours trying to persuade him to step back from the edge of the cliffs to a position of safety. Garda sources had earlier said while they were anxious to ensure the man did not harm himself, they also wanted to speak to him about the circumstances surrounding the death of Ms Bartowiak.
The Garda Ombudsman Commission has been briefed on the circumstances surrounding the incident and will conduct its own investigation.
Under the provisions of the Garda Síochána Act 2005, the Garda Commissioner is obliged to refer any matter that appears to indicate the conduct of the gardaí may have resulted in the death or serious harm of an individual.
The house where Ms Bartowiak's body was found was today due to undergo a forensic examination by members of the Garda Technical Bureau.
Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster was this morning due to carry out a postmortem following a preliminary examination of the body at the scene.
While the cause of death will not be known until those examinations are complete, Garda sources last night said it appeared there had been an altercation at the house and that the woman had been strangled.
