Gardaí in Bandon in west Cork were tonight poised to begin a second murder investigation in as many days following the discovery of the body of a second man in the river near the town earlier today.
Gardaí became concerned for the safety of John Forrister after they were unable to trace his whereabouts in the course of their investigation into the murder of Jonathan Duke whose body was found in the Bandon river.
Gardaí under Supt Eddie Mac Eoin of Bandon Garda station began a search of the Bandon River early this morning involving local officers, members of the Garda Water Unit and members of the local civil defence team.
Two local gardaí, Garda Colin O’Mahony and Garda Joe Toner, who are both keen kayakers also joined in the search and found Mr Forrister’s body about a kilometre downstream from Bandon Bridge shortly after 11am.
Mr Forrister’s body was removed to Cork University Hospital where Assistant State Pathologist, Dr Margaret Bolster, began a postmortem examination which confirmed that Mr Forrister had died a violent death.
Gardaí were tonight remaining tight-lipped about how exactly Mr Forrister died but it is understood he had suffered a number of stab wounds to the neck and head while his hands and feet were also bound with rope.
Meanwhile a team from the Garda Technical Bureau carried out a forensic examination of a house at Sean Hales Place near Bandon Bridge where gardaí believe Mr Forrister was assaulted on Saturday evening.
Gardaí are working on the theory that Mr Forrister was assaulted in a flat in the house and suffered stab wounds there as garda technical experts found a lot of blood in the flat.
Gardaí believe that Mr Forrester’s body was thrown over a railing into the River Bandon which flows just beside the house but it’s unclear whether or not he was dead when he entered the rier.
Mr Forrister used to stay in a ground floor flat in the house which is near the centre of Bandon and it was known that people use to gather in an upstairs flat in the house for drinks parties.
A native of Blackpool in the UK, Mr Forrester had been living in Ireland since at least 2007 and was living in Bandon for the past two years or so where he was a familiar face around the town.
Mr Forrester was unemployed and in receipt of social welfare and living in rented accommodation in the town and gardai were last night in the process of notifying his family in the UK of his death.
A large crowd of onlookers had gathered on the Cork Road outside Bandon earlier today as Mr Forrester’s body was removed from the river by gardaí.