Dead woman was recovering drug addict

The 19-year-old woman whose body was discovered at a derelict house in Co Kildare had been recovering from an addiction to drugs, it has emerged.

Ms Lynette McKeown was formally identified yesterday, two days after a farmer found her body in a secluded area at Eadestown on the road between Naas and Blessington.

Ms McKeown, the mother of a two-year-old daughter Kelly, had also worked as a prostitute in the Benburb Street/Arbour Hill area of Dublin, sources have confirmed.

The young woman had been missing since Friday, August 13th, when she left her home at Birchwood Heights in Tallaght, Co Dublin to get a bus into town, where she was reported to be meeting a family friend, but she never showed up.

While all the apparatus of a murder investigation are in place, gardaí have been reluctant to describe it as such because the post-mortem examination proved inconclusive in establishing the cause of death, with no visible sign of physical assault. Further toxicology tests, including those for drugs and poisons, have been carried out and the results are awaited.

Detectives at Naas Garda station, at Tallaght, and members of the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation are involved in the inquiry into the circumstances of the teenager's death and the efforts to trace her last movements.

They have renewed their appeal for a man who contacted detectives at Harcourt Square in Dublin, on Thursday afternoon, to get in touch again.

Chief Supt Seán Feely of Naas Garda station, who is leading the inquiry, described the caller as a "genuine person" and investigators believe the man could have vital information, crucial to the progress of the case.

As Ms McKeown's family, including her partner Mr Michael Murphy, were comforted by friends and relatives at their Tallaght home, preparations were being made for her funeral which may take place later this week.

Ms McKeown was known to gardaí but she had no criminal convictions and had never been arrested in relation either to prostitution or drugs offences. She was undergoing rehabilitation for her drugs addiction.

There were reports that she had been sighted in the Parkgate Street area of Dublin on Friday August 13th, but the last confirmed sighting of her was when she left her Tallaght home 11 days ago. She and her partner had been allocated a house by local authorities in the past couple of months.

Detectives believe her body may have been at Eadestown for up to a week, and the length of time she was there delayed the formal identification process.

They believe that the teenager died elsewhere and that her body was dumped in Eadestown as the vegetation around her remains showed no signs of a struggle.

Her family had issued public appeals for her to contact them and her picture and details had been on the missing persons' section of the Garda website.