Gardaí believe the main suspect in the murder of Jamey Carney (43) in Co Kerry has fled the country and have begun inquiries internationally to try to find him.
The American citizen, who had a 13-year-old daughter, suffered fatal head injuries in the attack that occurred on Monday night or in the early hours of Tuesday morning at her home in the Muckross Road area of Killarney.
Gardaí believe the man they are looking for, who is from the Middle East, had befriended the mother of one and has information to share on how she died.
In the hours after the discovery of Jamey Carney’s body on Tuesday afternoon, officers carried out checks at Kerry, Cork and Dublin airports. Gardaí also asked the Police Service of Northern Ireland to monitor Belfast airport.
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Detectives now believe the man caught an early-morning bus from Killarney to Dublin and made his way to Dublin Airport before boarding a flight to Turkey. They are trying to establish if he travelled on to his home country.
The man’s social media accounts had also been locked on Wednesday night.
Garda sources said officers are liaising with Interpol to try to trace the man’s movements once he landed.
If the suspect is located, gardaí could face a significant challenge in seeking to have him extradited. Under Irish law, extradition to Ireland is only permitted when a person is to either serve a sentence or to be charged with an offence.
Irish law does not permit extradition for the purpose of investigation or questioning. If gardaí are to seek the extradition of a suspect, they can only do so if they have received a direction from the Director of Public Prosecutions to charge them with an offence.
Because Jamey Carney was a US citizen, and the man being sought is from the Middle East and has permission to remain permanently in Ireland, gardaí are concerned the killing may be taken up by the US far right and political figures intent on stirring racial tensions in the Republic.
The alarm was raised at lunchtime on Tuesday, when a concerned relative of the victim called to her rented house at the Homeland estate and found her remains.
The entrance to the estate of eight houses remained sealed off by gardaí on Wednesday morning, with the victim’s remains removed via hearse at 11.15am to University Hospital Kerry for a postmortem.
The dead woman was originally from Westchester County, north of New York City, and moved to Killarney in 2021. It is believed that two of her grandparents were from Co Kerry.
Her father died 11 months ago. Her mother and sister still live in the United States. She had worked in Tralee for RelateCare for the last 4½ years. A family liaison officer has been appointed to assist the family.
Last night, gardaí said a postmortem had been completed by State pathologist Dr Linda Mulligan, and the inquiry had “now been upgraded to a murder investigation”.
A senior officer has been appointed to lead the investigation. An incident room has been established at Killarney Garda station.
