Man and woman due in court following discovery of body in Wexford quarry

Stephen Ring, 27, was reported missing by his family on October 15, but information provided to investigators led to the discovery of his body in a quarry at Shelmalier Commons, Co Wexford.

A man is due to appear in court on Tuesday morning in relation to the murder of 27-year-old Stephen Ring, a missing man whose battered body was discovered at a remote quarry in Co Wexford on Sunday.

A woman is also due before Wexford court to face charges of assisting the man.

It is thought the murder of Mr Ring was linked to a drugs debt or drugs dispute, but garda sources last night said the exact motive was still being “teased out”.

The discovery of Mr Ring’s body, some 12 days after family reported him missing from Clonard, Co Wexford, was one of two violent deaths over the weekend — and the fourth within the last week.

The second violent death, on Monday, was of an Eastern European man, aged in his 40s, whose body was found at a house in Lucan, West Dublin. 

He appeared to have been physically assault in an alcohol-fuelled incident. A suspect was arrested in the house.

Gardaí investigating the murder of Mr Ring got the green light on Monday night from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to charge two people – a man, aged in his 40s, and a woman, aged in her 30s — both from Wexford.

Mr Ring was reported missing by his family on October 15, but information provided to investigators led to the discovery of his body in a quarry at Shelmalier Commons, Co Wexford. He had suffered a serious assault.

The home of the woman arrested had previously been searched by gardaí and drug paraphernalia was found.

Local sources said the house is known locally as a “crack den” or a “drug den”. That property was sealed off and searched on Sunday.

Weekend fatalities

Detectives investigating the violent death in Lucan believe that the victim suffered some sort of assault overnight on Sunday at a gathering where alcohol was being consumed by people in the house.

It appears that nobody suspected the man was seriously injured and it is only when he was unresponsive on Monday morning that an occupant of the house called emergency services.

A man, aged in his 20s, who was in the house at Old Bridge Park when gardaí arrived at around 8am, was arrested.

The scene was preserved for a forensic and technical examination, and an autopsy was organised. Officers were in consultation with the DPP on Monday night.

The weekend fatalities follow the death of John Casserly, aged 58, on Tone St, Ballina, Co Mayo, just before midnight last Wednesday. He had sustained injuries during a suspected assault.

That came just a day after the fatal stabbing of Darren Quigley, aged 30, outside a house on Market View in the New Oak Estate in Carlow early last Tuesday.

“It has been a violent week and a number [of incidents] involved the consumption of drugs and alcohol,” a garda source said.

The four deaths followed the launch of a murder investigation the previous week into missing Co Louth boy Kyran Durnin.

A detailed search last week at the boy’s family home in Dundalk, as well as adjoining open land, did not uncover remains.

Investigators are currently examining information gathered from a “significant volume of calls” from the public.