Gardaí look to contact all who met murder victim Cameron Reilly (18) on Friday

Gardaí investigating the murder of 18-year-old Cameron Reilly are seeking to interview anyone who had contact with him while socialising on Friday night.

The young man's body was found in a field on Saturday morning just outside the town of Dunleer in Co Louth. A postmortem confirmed he died in "violent circumstances". It is understood he had extensive injuries to his neck.

Gardaí have opened a murder investigation. Mr Reilly, who was well known in the Dunleer area, was out socialising with friends in the town on Friday night and was seen speaking to various groups of people.

Investigators are now focusing their efforts on tracking down and speaking to anyone who interacted with Mr Reilly in the hope they could have information about his killer.

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Mr Reilly was last seen near Ardee Road at about 12.30am on Saturday morning.

“Investigating gardaí are appealing to anyone who was in his company or with information about his movements on Friday evening and Saturday morning to make contact with them,” a garda spokesman said.

Gardaí in Drogheda are also asking taxi drivers, bus drivers and anyone who may have dashcam footage from the Dunleer area from that time period to make contact with them.

Missing iPhone

Investigators are also keen to recover Mr Reilly’s missing phone which they believe could hold valuable clues, including about his movements on the night in question.

“We are particularly appealing for assistance from the public to locate Cameron’s phone, an Apple iPhone 8X (64GB) with a green hard back cover, space grey in colour. We would ask home and business owners in Dunleer to check their property including wheelie bins and waste skips. We would also ask anyone offered a phone for sale as described to contact us.”

Gardaí are also appealing for information, particularly to anyone near Shamrock Hill, Dunleer, between 4pm on Friday and 8.30am on Saturday morning.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Drogheda Garda station on 041-9874200, the Garda Confidential Line at 1800 666 111 or any Garda station.

No arrests have been made.

A man walking his dog came across Mr Reilly’s body at about 8am on Saturday on agricultural land off the Ardee Road, near an industrial estate.

Gardaí sealed off the scene for forensic examination and began making door-to-door inquiries at nearby housing estates.

‘Beautiful son’

The body was taken to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda where a postmortem was conducted by Deputy State Pathologist Dr Linda Martin.

Investigating gardaí confirmed the man died in violent circumstances and a murder investigation has commenced.

On Sunday Mr Reilly's mother, Tracy Glass, wrote on the Dunleer Parish Facebook page that the family's "hearts are broken in a million pieces".

She added: “My beautiful son love u to the moon and back.”

Parish priest, Father Michael Murtagh said Mr Reilly was a "particularly pleasant, courteous innocent young man. His family are hugely respected around the place".

“There’s a quiet sadness in the town,” he said. “That’s as near as I can get to describing the mood in the community here.

"The community here is extremely peaceful. A lot of people are openly in tears about it. For something violent like this to happen, it's hugely unexpected for the community and devastating for the family," he told The Irish Times on Sunday evening.