Gardaí release third person in Katy French death probe

Two men and a woman questioned over the death of model Katy French were tonight released without charge.

Detectives investigating how socialite Ms French died last December after a suspected drug overdose revealed files were being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.

A decision on whether to bring charges will be made at a later date.

A 39-year-old man, a woman aged 28, and another man in his mid-20s were freed after a day and a half of questioning at separate garda stations in Co Meath, just outside Dublin.

A 19-year-old man arrested today can be held until tomorrow morning.

The arrests were the first made by Irish police as they stepped up their intensive 11-week investigation into the suspicious death.

Ms French, 24, died in hospital on December 6 after collapsing at a friend’s house in Kilmessan, Co Meath, five days earlier.

All four people were questioned individually at separate garda stations in Co Meath near to where Ms French took ill. They were detained under section four of the Criminal Justice Act.

The Swiss-born model had admitted in media interviews to taking cocaine in the past, but insisted she had given up the drug and had warned others of its dangers.

She fell unconscious at a friend’s house in the village of Kilmessan, Co Meath, after enjoying a night out in Dublin city centre. Hours later she lapsed into a coma.

Ms French’s parents, John and Janet, and sister Jill, maintained a bedside vigil as the 24-year-old lay critically ill on a life-support machine in a Navan hospital.

Despite the best efforts of medics she never regained consciousness and died on December 6.

An initial post-mortem examination on the model was inconclusive and extensive toxicology tests have been carried to assess whether there were traces of cocaine or other drugs in her system.

Gardaí said investigating officers have received the findings of the tests on Ms French’s body but refused to make them public.

Miss French was one of the country’s most photographed women and her rise to fame was synonymous with the Celtic Tiger affluence.

She and her family moved to Ireland when she was a young girl and settled in Enniskerry, Co Wicklow.

A week before her collapse she celebrated her 24th birthday in a fashionable Dublin nightclub with 400 invited guests.