THE GARDA investigation into the death of a woman whose body was recovered from the Grand Canal in Co Laois last month has now been upgraded to a murder inquiry.
Yvonne O'Shea, a mother of four, died after she went into the water between Vicarstown and Athy on the night of Saturday, November 22nd.
A Garda spokesman last night said: "The death of Yvonne O'Shea is the subject of a thorough Garda investigation, and has been since the outset."
The spokesman confirmed that no arrests had been made.
Yesterday it emerged that gardaí had carried out searches of a number of properties on Thursday.
The locations were two houses in Dublin and one house in Kildare. A stun gun was recovered at one of the Dublin locations and was being forensically analysed last night, sources said.
The Irish Times understands that the investigation was upgraded to a murder inquiry earlier this week. However, investigating officers have been treating the inquiry as more than a drowning incident since Ms O'Shea died.
Meanwhile, the stretch of the canal where the incident took place has been searched again, but nothing was recovered.
A Garda spokesman would not comment on reports that one man had been informally spoken to by gardaí.
Following the incident in November, gardaí were alerted to the fact that Ms O'Shea had gone into the water at about 7pm.
Local gardaí arrived at the scene quickly and went into the canal after Ms O'Shea. However, they were unable to save her life.
Ms O'Shea's body was removed to Tullamore General Hospital, where a postmortem was carried out which established that the cause of death was drowning.
At the time it was reported that the car in which Ms O'Shea had been travelling with her husband and their four children had broken down close to the canal shortly before she died.
Gardaí in Portlaoise then said they were investigating all circumstances leading to her death and appealed for anyone who had been in the area to contact them. Last night Garda sources said the investigation team was still anxious to speak to people who may have passed the scene of the incident.