Bid to identify murdered man found in canal
Gardaí were tonight carrying out extensive tests to identify the body of a man dumped in Dublin’s Royal Canal.
Detectives were anxiously awaiting post-mortem exam results in a bid to discover how he was killed, as shocked residents came to terms with the horrific discovery.
Chief Superintendent Michael Feehan, who is leading the investigation said it had been a brutal murder.
“We don’t know how long the body was in the canal water, so it’s important that anyone who saw anything suspicious around Ballybough in the last week, or more than a week ago, if they could come forward and let us know any information they have,” he said.
The body was discovered at 7.30pm yesterday by a man walking along the section of the canal close to Ballybough Road.
Mr Feehan said gardai could not confirm reports that his body had been dismembered.
“For operational reasons, I don’t intend to go into any of the details. The investigation is at a very early stage,” he said.
Mr Feehan said that the man may have been killed at another location and that it was important for anyone with suspicions to come forward.
He also appealed to people who had any concerns about missing persons to contact gardai at the incident room at Fitzgibbon Street Garda Station at 01 6668400.
Gardaí were today carrying out house to house inquiries around the Ballybough Road, which remained sealed off from the Summerhill Junction to Clonliffe Road and traffic diversions were put in place.
Local resident Ellen Bradley said she’d first noticed there was something wrong at around 7pm yesterday.
“I noticed the traffic and I came out of my door and there was an ambulance and garda in the street.
“They’ve been there all night and I’ve seen sniffer dogs up there as well,” she said.
Philip Kelly, who works on the street next to the canal said that the road had been roped off since he had got to work at 8.30 this morning.
“There are always incidents happening with the canal, stuff being found, always something,” he said.
The remains of the man were removed from the scene today and brought to Beaumont Hospital.
In 2001, the badly-beaten body of a Romanian man, Adrian Bestea, was found in a suitcase in the Royal Canal.
He died in a flat in Sandymount from multiple blows to the back of the head with a weapon believed to be a tyre iron.
His 31-year-old girlfriend, Marina Sourovtzeva, had enlisted three men to evict him from the flat after he had beaten her. After an extensive Garda investigation, she was jailed for two years in 2002 for assaulting and falsely imprisoning him.
A Ukrainian man was jailed for three years in 2003 on the same charge.
