Woman's leg found on rocks at causeway near Bull Island

Gardaí are hopeful that DNA and blood testing may help with identification after a human leg was found washed up along a stretch of coast popular with walkers and joggers.

The leg, which has been identified as that of a woman, was found on rocks alongside the causeway leading to Bull Island, north Dublin, yesterday.

A dog attracted its owner to the limb at about 9am. Gardaí were called and sealed off the area before the leg was taken to the city morgue in nearby Marino.

Garda sources said the limb was that of a woman who had been alive until very recently and may have been in the water for less than 24 hours given the minimal levels of decay.

Missing person’s reports for women who have disappeared in recent days are being examined in an effort to narrow down the list of possible identities.

“We are examining if someone might have jumped off a boat or may have entered the water recently to take their own lives and their body was then caught in a boat’s propellers,” said a Garda source.

The same source said gardaí were keeping an open mind and could not discount the possibility that the deceased had met with foul play before the limb was severed from her remains in the water.

The leg has been examined by a pathologist, and DNA and blood samples have been extracted. The samples will also be sent to other jurisdictions to be cross-checked with DNA databases there, though no such facility exists in the Republic.