The sprawling suburb of Mahon, on the southern perimeter of Cork, was in shock yesterday following the discovery of a teenage girl's body on Saturday morning.
Rachel Sandeman (17), of Mahon Drive, was last seen with friends making her way home from a disco in the early hours of Saturday morning. But it appears she separated from her friends and did not go home with them.
Her badly beaten body, partially hidden in a thicket off Nutley Road, not far from where she lived, was discovered by a girl at play. She ran to her parents and told them she had seen human legs among briars in a recreational area.
The scene was cordoned off by gardai. A doctor was called, who found the girl had been dead for some hours. On Saturday evening the State Pathologist, Dr John Harbison, carried out a preliminary examination and yesterday conducted a full post-mortem, the results of which are awaited.
Immediately after the discovery of the body, people gathered to pray at the scene, in what is largely a local authority housing area. People spoke of their shock at hearing of the death. Neighbours brought flowers to the scene.
The dead girl's mother, Susan, and her bother, Daniel, who is in his late teens, were comforted throughout yesterday by friends and relatives.
People in Nutley Road, near where the body was found, said yesterday they had been taken completely by surprise at the news. "The first I heard of it was on Saturday morning when gardai called to my house to ask if I had noticed anything unusual. I was stunned when they told me what had happened," one neighbour said. "They knocked on my door and I just couldn't believe what they were telling me.
"This is normally a quiet and peaceful area. You might hear some noises in the night with people coming and going from the pubs or discos, but that's as much."
At the scene of the killing, a local priest, Father Damian O'Mahony, administered the last rites and after Mass yesterday spoke of the obvious shock which affected the congregation. The snuffing out of a young life was such a difficult thing to come to terms with and people were still trying to understand how it happened, he said. But the community had gathered together and was doing its best to comfort a grieving family.
The funeral will take place on Tuesday, following Requiem Mass, to St Michael's Cemetery, near Mahon.