Appeal over woman found lying on roadside
The brother of a young Drogheda woman who died after being found unconscious on a roadside appealed today for information about her death.
Breda Ryan, 20, lost her fight for life on Sunday morning without having regained consciousness, just over a week after she was discovered with serious head bruising and chest injuries close to a popular beauty spot on the banks of the River Boyne.
Results of a post-mortem examination carried out by State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy will not be released until further examinations are completed.
Gardaí are treating the death as suspicious and have completely ruled out any possibility that it was the result of a hit-and-run collision.
Breda’s brother Simon Ryan urged anyone with information that could help solve the mystery to get in touch with Gardaí.
“She was outgoing, she was genuine, she was lovely, she was always happy, smiling – a beautiful girl, a lovely sister. We’re devastated. We really need to know,” he said.
“It’s hard. Anybody that knows anything at all needs to come up straight away.”
Gardaí yesterday upgraded their investigation into the tragic death of the young woman, who has left behind a one-month old baby daughter, currently being looked after by relatives.
Detectives insist they are keeping an open mind but it is known one line of enquiry is that Ms Ryan was assaulted and dumped from a car near a scenic spot popular with anglers on the Louth/Meath border known as Curley’s Hole.
“It’s not right. A young girl out walking and someone takes her like that, then she’s in a coma for a week and then she dies,” said Mr Ryan.
“That’s never expected. It happens to people but we didn’t think it would happen to us,” he told RTÉ radio.
A passing motorist discovered the woman unconscious shortly after 6am last Friday, July 28, just two miles from her home in the Cedarfield area of Drogheda.
She was taken to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, in the Co Louth town, but was later moved to Beaumont Hospital in Dublin because of the severity of her injuries.
