Gardaí search canal murder victim Kenneth O’Brien’s house

A Garda forensic team was on Wednesday examining the home of a 33-year-old man whose headless torso was discovered in a suitcase in the Grand Canal last week.

The murder of Kenneth O’Brien, a father of one from west Dublin with no ties to crime, has been described by gardaí as “particularly gruesome”.

While a motive for the murder has yet to be established, detectives are attempting to establish whether he was killed over a personal matter.

On Wednesday their focus turned to a house on Lealand Road in Clondalkin where he had lived with his partner and young son.

The exact location of Mr O’Brien’s death has not yet been identified but gardaí believe power tools may have been used to dismember his body, which was identified through DNA analysis.

Mr O’Brien had informed family members he was “going down the country” for a short period to work before he disappeared.

When subsequent efforts to contact him by phone failed, a member of his extended family reported him missing.

Precautionary search

A Garda

Technical Bureau

search of Mr O’Brien’s home was expected to continue into Wenesday night. Sources described the search as “precautionary”.

Operations were also continuing on the Grand Canal at Ardclough, Co Kilare, which has been cordoned off since the discovery of his remains on Saturday.

A mechanic, JCB driver and diesel fitter, he had travelled to work in Australia in recent years, returning home in December.

Gardaí have appealed for information and are understood to be examining who Mr O'Brien had been associating with since his return to Ireland. Gardaí are understood to be liaising with police in Australia to investigate his time there.

All lines of inquiry are now under examination and are likely to include the possibility his death resulted from a personal grudge.

Gardaí have carried out house-to-house inquiries on Lealand Road and CCTV footage of the area will also be examined.

Neighbours of Mr O’Brien in Clondalkin described the deceased as a friendly, quiet man who had originally moved to the area about seven years ago, but while he was commonly seen coming and going, nobody really knew him that well.

“He was a very, very quiet man, and a really lovely family to be honest with you. But there is nothing more we can say about him. A good neighbour to have,” said one woman who asked not to be identified and whose children played with Mr O’Brien’s son outside their homes.

‘Normal man’

Mr O’Brien had not come to the attention of gardaí in any significant way outside of a few minor traffic violations.

Superintendent Gerry Wall, in a briefing at Leixlip Garda station, said the father of one was "a very normal man going about his business, pursuing his employment, trying to get some work".

Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan expressed her sympathies with Mr O’Brien’s family.

“I would like to take the opportunity to appeal to anybody that may have information no matter how small or unimportant they may think it is,” she said.