Murdered teen’s remains to be returned home

PREPARATIONS are being made for the return of the remains of murdered Swiss language student Manuela Riedo to her home country.

Coroner Dr Ciaran MacLoughlin confirmed yesterday evening that postmortem forensics examinations had concluded. “Our work is finished and the family are now free to make their own private arrangements to repatriate the body,” he said.

The 17-year-old’s parents, Hans and Arlette, have been too distressed to travel to Ireland from their home in Hinterkappelen on the outskirts of Bern but officials from the Swiss Embassy have offered to accompany their daughter’s remains on the journey back to Switzerland.

As the Garda investigation into Manuela’s murder entered its third day yesterday, Garda forensics experts continued to focus their attentions on the patch of ground where her partially clothed body was found.

The strip of waste land running by the railway line which local people in Galway used as a shortcut from the suburb of Renmore to the city, was becoming increasingly muddied by prolonged rain but it is understood it is the only scene gardaí have connected with the crime so far, making any clues it might provide vital.

Friends and local people continued to leave flowers at the now sealed-off entrance to the walkway and with personal details slowly emerging about Manuela, including her love of sport, one sympathiser had left a hurley in their midst.

The first official photograph of the teenager was released last night by gardaí who hope that it may help jog the public’s memory about any sightings of her during her short time here before her death.

Superintendent Tom Curley asked anyone who saw her or noticed anything suspicious in the area to report it. Manuela had arrived in Ireland last Saturday with a group of 43 other Swiss students to begin a two-week course in English at the Galway Language Centre.

She was last seen alive on Monday evening between 7-7.30pm when she left the home of her host family in Renmore to meet friends in the city centre. She never showed up and her body was found by the railway line just five minutes’ walk away the following morning.

A postmortem examination found she died of strangulation but further details about the condition of her body have not been released and gardaí have not commented on speculation that she was sexually assaulted.

However one line of inquiry is that her death may be linked to a number of sex attacks in the city in recent months, including one on a woman close to the place where Manuela’s body was found.

The teenager’s death has prompted unease in the city amid questions why the much-used short-cut was not either made safe with public lighting or closed off completely.

Despite warnings by local student bodies and the head of the murder investigation, Superintendent Tom Curley, to students to take extra precautions while the murderer remains at large, concerned callers contacted local radio station Galway Bay FM yesterday to report no let-up in the number of young people seen making their way home alone the previous night or attempting to flag down vehicles while clearly drunk and vulnerable.

Local couple, Martin and Carol Tierney, with whom Manuela was staying in the Renmore Park estate, pulled the curtains on their downstairs window yesterday and asked for privacy. “I really don’t want to talk to anyone,” said Mr Tierney.

Books of condolence were opened at several locations around the city yesterday and steady streams of foreign students and local people came to express their sympathies.

“It’s because of the embarrassment and shame we feel that a young girl coming to our city should be treated like this,” said Margaret Keane. “We feel protective towards them and feel almost guilty that this should happen.”

Several hundred foreign students and teachers from the city’s three main language schools attended a memorial service yesterday evening at which local priest Fr Richard Lyng described Manuela’s death as “this horrible devastation”.