WITNESSES have come forward with information about a man seen in the car driven by Ms Geraldine Diver shortly before she was strangled in west Dublin on, Monday night.
Gardai also have at least one video showing the killer leaving the car after strangling Ms Diver outside a builders' providers on Robinhood Road.
It is believed the killer may have been in the back seat of the car and was known to Ms Diver (42), a mother of two.
Garda sources were confident yesterday that an arrest would be made in the case although maybe not in the next few days.
The senior officer in charge of the investigation, Chief Supt Patrick Crummy, has appealed for help from taxi drivers working in west Dublin who may have picked up Ms Diver's killer after he left her car.
The killer's image was captured on videotape by the close circuit television camera outside Buckley's Builders' Providers, where Ms Diver's car was parked.
The video confirms her killer was with her in the car. The manner of her death suggests he was travelling in the rear seat and caught Ms Diver from behind, strangling her with a necktie which he then attached to the driver seat headrest. Ms Diver was not sexually assaulted and no money was taken from her handbag.
Ms Diver is understood to have made an appointment to meet a friend in a south Dublin pub on Monday night but did not arrive. The friend contacted gardai on Tuesday and is understood not to be a suspect.
After leaving work in the Coombe Hospital, Ms Diver had returned home to Kilnamanagh Road, Walkinstown. She dressed for the evening and then drove towards the Long Mile Road. It is understood gardai have interviewed witnesses who saw Ms Diver in the car with a male passenger at the early stages of her journey.
A team of detectives, based in Ronanstown Garda station, is conducting the investigation under the direction of a detective superintendent.
The murder is the third to happen in the Clondalkin Garda district this year. In June, the journalist Veronica Guerin was shot dead in her car on the Naas Road at the Newlands Crossroads.
However, as there is a severe overcrowding problem in Clondalkin Garda station, the Guerin murder is being investigated from an incident room in Lucan Garda station.
The Garda Press Office last night appealed for any member of the public who might have noticed Ms Diver after leaving work in the Coombe Hospital, and driving her wine coloured Renault Clio, registration 96 D 37317, to ring the investigation room at Dublin 457 4574.
The press office said when Ms Diver left the hospital she was wearing a red jacket over her clerical uniform, blue black trousers and dark shoes.