Murdered man’s family seek privacy

The family of a 22-year-old man found murdered on Monday evening have appealed for privacy as they grieve the loss of their loved one.

Martin Brophy was discovered dead in a disused former college building in Waterford city at about 5.30pm on Monday after he was fatally attacked sometime after Saturday evening.

“We’re all just devastated over it,” said a family member who did not wish to be named yesterday.

“No one deserves to die like that, God love him.”

She said the family would remember Martin as “a little angel” growing up, who was a “beautiful-looking child” but was hit hard by the death of his mother four years ago and was “trying to get his life on track” in recent times.

“There’s not any of us who could say anything bad about Martin.”

She said there was much speculation about Martin’s death in the last two days, but “we don’t know” how he died or the circumstances leading to his death.

Gardaí have renewed their appeal for information on the murder which is believed to have occurred sometime on Sunday.

The last time Mr Brophy was seen was on Saturday afternoon and detectives are trying to track down his movements from about 4pm on Saturday when he was in the Poleberry area of Waterford City.

Superintendent Chris Delaney, who is leading the investigation, said he did not want to speculate on an exact time of death.

“We won’t be commenting on that. We’re covering that whole three-day period from Saturday.”

Neither would he comment on reports that Mr Brophy was struck with a cement block.

Gardaí are trying to put together as much CCTV footage as possible to trace Mr Brophy’s whereabouts from Saturday evening and are conducting door-to-door interviews.

Those inquiries initially focused on the area around the disused building which was the murder scene.