Victim may have met her killer online
Sylvia Roche Kelly, 33, was discovered by staff at the Clarion Hotel at about midday on Saturday.
Superintendent John Kerin, who is heading the investigation, said they were trying to establish the circumstances in which the dead woman met a man from Tipperary who they are trying to trace.
He said they were investigating the possibility the two met through the internet, but this had not been yet established.
Supt Kerin said the investigation has not been categorised as a murder probe but it was being carried out on the scale of a murder.
While a postmortem was inconclusive, Supt Kerin said the woman had been assaulted.
She had gone to the hotel late on Friday night with the man, 23, from Co Tipperary, who had booked a room on the 11th floor.
The man had checked in at about 6pm on his own, before leaving again.
Gardaí were yesterday trying to track the movements of both in the hours before they came back to the hotel.
CCTV security cameras caught the two going straight to a room on the 11th floor after entering the foyer of the hotel.
Supt Kerin said gardaí had met with the family of the suspect and they had been very co-operative.
Ms Roche Kelly had been with friends in the city prior to meeting up with the man from Tipperary.
Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy on a visit to Limerick yesterday said they were following a definite line of inquiry into the death.
Ms Roche Kelly and her husband were said to have been living separate lives and had two children aged 12 and four.
The suspect is believed to be involved in the building industry.
Ms Roche Kelly, who was originally from Coonagh, had been living in Sixmilebridge where she ran an art gallery.
Meanwhile, the funeral of Limerick teenager, Richard “Happy” Kelly, whose skeletal remains were discovered in a lake in Co Clare nearly two weeks ago, will take place on Thursday.
While gardaí at Killaloe, are heading the murder investigation, Roxboro road gardaí will assist as they have carried out an investigation into his disappearance in April 2006.
Mr Kelly, who was 17 at the time of his disappearance, was a known joy rider in Southill where he lived with his mother and two brothers.
Gardaí suspect he may have been abducted and murdered by a local drugs gang having taken a car in which they had drugs hidden.
