Man arrested after skeleton found in forest

A 41-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the murder of a woman whose skeletal remains were found in a hillside forest.

Elaine O'Hara, 37, disappeared in August last year after leaving her home in Belarmine Plaza, Stepaside, and later being seen at a footbridge over a railway line at Shankill, Co Dublin.

Her body was found in the foothills of the Dublin Mountains last month.

Gardaí detained a man at Blackrock Garda station in connection with the murder. He is being held under section four of the Criminal Justice Act 1984.

Ms O'Hara was described by her family as a popular woman, but she was understood to have been vulnerable and had been treated in hospital for depression.

She was also described as a trusted childcare assistant and she worked in a newsagents in Blackrock.

It is understood she had been using contact websites in the months leading up to her disappearance, and forensic experts have pored over internet records to build a list of people she came into contact with.

Ms O’Hara’s remains were uncovered by a dog in the Killakee area near Rathfarnham on September 13.

Handcuffs and restraints were found 20km away at Vartry reservoir near Roundwood, Co Wicklow, after some of Ms O’Hara’s belongings were found at the same spot during a spell of low water.