Tiny shreds of evidence may point to killer
Even the type of dirt or other material found on the soles of a shoe could yield vital clues.
The over-riding concern to preserve the scene near Inch beach was such that gardaí took the difficult decision to leave the body in place overnight.
Assistant Commissioner Tony Hickey, supervising the investigation, was not going to take any chances of contaminating the scene.
The State Pathologist and the Garda Technical Unit yesterday began the process of gathering together all possible evidence.
Dr Marie Cassidy carried out a preliminary postmortem examination at the scene to try to determine the cause and time of death.
She examined whether there were any marks on the body, such as pressure marks on the neck or blows to the body.
Samples from the body, including any dirt or other material from underneath fingernails, would have been taken for analysis.
Dr Cassidy will have to carry out a full postmortem for more detailed evidence.
The boy's clothes will have been carefully searched for hair fibres, blood stains, dirt or any material.
The area under and around the body, including nearby undergrowth, will also have been examined.
The technical team will also forensically examine nearby roads for tyre marks.
The Garda Technical Unit has a range of experts including forensics, fingerprints, photography and crime location mapping.
They are trained to be professional and unemotional, despite the difficult nature of their job.
Their task is to search for and retrieve evidence that might help identify the killer.
Detectives hope the cold weather over recent days may have helped preserve tissue and other bodily fragments.
Gardaí were able to solve the rape and murder of 41-year-old civil servant Marilyn Rynn during Christmas 1996 due to the cold weather.
Although her body lay undiscovered for almost a fortnight, and was badly decomposed, the cold helped preserve DNA evidence to convict David Lawler.
Lawler voluntarily gave a DNA sample as he thought, after researching on the internet, that any samples from Ms Rynn would be useless after two weeks.
If DNA samples don't provide the breakthrough, other forensic samples, such as clothes fibres, might.
Much will depend on the work of scientists at the State Forensic Laboratory.
Clothes samples enabled them to identify John McDonagh for the rape and murder of 17-year-old Siobhán Hynes on a beach in Carraroe, Co Galway in 1998.
Numerous fibres matched the girl's acrylic, wine polo-neck, her blue polyester fleece jacket and her black socks, on a jumper worn by McDonagh.
Two red fibres, found on McDonagh's car seat cover, matched those of Siobhán's clothes.
While detectives await the DNA and forensic evidence, they will also try to identify all possible suspects against whom they can check the evidence.
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