Search for body in sea continues

THE coastguard and Ballybunion Sea and Cliff Rescue yesterday continued their search for the body of a 33-year-old man who jumped to his death from the cliffs at the north Kerry seaside resort on Tuesday night.

Stephen Goodson-Ukiwo, from Benin, in west Africa, was found on the cliff-top a short time after the body of his partner, Polish woman Katarzyna Bartkowiak, 27, was found at their rented house in Tralee.

Garda negotiators had spent up to six hours trying to dissuade him from leaping about 50 metres into the sea.

A full-scale murder investigation was launched after the discovery of the woman’s body in an upstairs bedroom of the terraced house in Deerpark Estate, Manor West, on the outskirts of the town.

She is believed to have been strangled.

Meanwhile, Mr Goodson-Ukiwo has a wife and family living in the Midleton area of Co Cork, local gardaí have confirmed.

Gardaí in Midleton have been asked to inform them he is missing.

He had been in a relationship with Ms Bartkowiak for the past four years, and they had son, Seán, aged two.

A brother and an aunt of Ms Bartkowiak flew from Poland to Cork Airport, on Wednesday night, and travelled to Tralee.

They are being assisted by a Garda family liaison officer.

Arrangements are being made for the release of the body.

Members of the Garda Technical Bureau yesterday completed their examination of the house and the murder investigation is continuing under Supt James O’Connor, Tralee.

In Ballybunion, meanwhile, searchers were yesterday keeping a close eye on the water’s edge for Mr Goodson-Ukiwo’s body.

A coastguard helicopter has also been involved in searching an area from the Castle Green to the Nuns’ Strand.

A popular cliff walk runs along the area from where Mr Goodson-Ukiwo jumped, on the seaward side of a railing.

He played as a striker with the Lisselton Rovers soccer club, near Ballybunion, and was known to his team-mates as “Snoop”.