Post mortem results show student was murdered

A young art student found dead five years ago in a burnt out caravan was murdered, cold case detectives revealed tonight.

Forensic scientists said Emer O‘Loughlin was slashed around the back of the neck before her body was burned beyond recognition in the caravan near the Clare-Galway border in 2005.

The murder suspect is believed to have fled the country.

It is understood experts who carried out new examinations found evidence of severe wounds on the young woman’s neck which could not have been spotted in the original post mortem.

Gardai exhumed the 23-year-old‘s body from a grave in Co Clare on the local coroner‘s order for detailed pathology tests to be carried out at Galway University Hospital.

The new examinations, carried out by Deputy State Pathologist Dr Michael Curtis and Forensic Anthropologist Dr Lorraine Buckley, were only made possible after radical advances in forensic science over the last few years.

Ms O‘Loughlin‘s family and senior gardaí had refused to accept the young woman’s death was an accident.

Gardai said the death had been treated as suspicious for the last five years but tonight confirmed a murder inquiry was under way.

Ms O‘Loughlin, originally from Ennistymon, Co Clare and a student at Galway Mayo Institute of Technology, had been living in the area with her boyfriend for a period before her death.

It is believed she had gone to the caravan on a site near Ballybornagh, Tubber, where she was attacked and died.

It took some time for her remains to be identified after being discovered in the burnt-out wreckage between Tubber and Kinvara on April 8 2005.

No arrests have been made.

It is understood investigating gardaí identified a man as the prime suspect over the death and the arson but he disappeared overseas shortly after the incident.

Ms O‘Loughlin‘s sister Pamela posted on the internet a description of a man she claimed was involved in the death.

The Facebook tribute page to her sister states the suspect is in his 30s/40s, with dark brown hair thinning on top, slim/medium build and has distinctive tattoo on the front of his neck.

Gardai said investigations were ongoing with local gardaí headed by Superintendent Sean Healy, of Gort Garda Station, and Detective Superintendent Christy Mangan, of the Serious Crime Review Team, leading the inquiry.

Gardai said they believe people have information about Ms O‘Loughlin‘s death and urged them to come forward.