Gardaí hope for murder breakthrough

GARDAÍ investigating the death of a Lithuanian man in Dublin last month hope to make a breakthrough in the coming weeks.

Grazuydas Strelciunas, 36, died after been beaten around the head and body in a house in Blanchardstown on June 19.

It is understood the suspects who carried out the beating had an all-night party after they dumped the body in bushes near Dunboyne, Co Meath.

Meanwhile, gardaí yesterday released the name of a Lithuanian man whose body was found dumped in the Glen of the Downs 10 days ago. He was Arunas Gelzinis, 42, from Klaipeda, who had been working in Northern Ireland after arriving in Portadown from Lithuania on May 20.

The last reported sighting of Mr Gelzinis was at the GPO in O’Connell on June 21. He had taken a train from Portadown to Dublin that day and intended to travel home to Lithuania.

Gardaí said inquiries into his suspicious death were “at an advanced stage”. They declined to comment further.

Gardaí have ruled out any connection with the suspicious death of another Lithuanian man last week.

His body was found partly-decomposed lying face down in a stream in the Co Wicklow nature reserve.

Detectives have ruled out any link between both suspicious deaths. They suspect the fatal assault in Blanchardstown may have been the result of a beating that went too far.

The deceased was thought to have lived for a further 12 to 24 hours after the beating and died from internal injuries.

Officers likened the case to that of Adrian Bestea, a 21-year-old Romanian immigrant who was beaten to death and dumped in a Dublin canal in July 2000.

The garda who led that investigation, Detective Inspector Hubert Collins, is now a detective superintendent based in Blanchardstown and is leading the Lithuanian investigation.

Mr Bestea died from injuries in a beating that was supposed to be a ‘lesson’, but spiralled out of control.

“The cases seem to be very similar and the experience of Det Supt Collins in the Bestea case is very valuable,” said a garda source.

Gardaí arrested four people - two women and two men - in the days after Mr Strelciunas’s body was found.

The four, all Lithuanian, were questioned at Ashbourne and Blanchardstown stations, but were released without charge.

A number of other people, all Lithuanian, have been interviewed voluntarily by police. Detectives are, however, still anxious to talk to one man who is suspected of being involved in the attack.