Gardai in search for murdered woman's clothing

GARDAI are still searching for clothing worn by Mrs Patricia Murphy, the mother of four young children who was strangled in north…

GARDAI are still searching for clothing worn by Mrs Patricia Murphy, the mother of four young children who was strangled in north Dublin on Monday.

Post mortem examination of Mrs Murphy's body showed she had not been raped or sexually assaulted although her ski pants, polo neck sweater, shoes and anorak were missing when her body found.

The gardai involved in the case are still not offering any opinions on Mrs Murphy's whereabouts in the 21 hours between leaving her part time job in a Drumcondra B&B on Monday morning and the discovery of her body.

It should have taken Mrs Murphy (34) only 15 minutes to cover the distance between the Lismore B&B on Drumcondra Road, and her home in Griffith Avenue.

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The officer leading the investigation, Supt Jack Behan, last night asked for help from anyone who was in the area on Monday morning after 10.30 a.m. when Mrs Murphy should have been on her way home. He confirmed that postmortem examination results showed Mrs Murphy had been strangled but had not been sexually assaulted.

Gardai are now understood to be concentrating on forensic pathology results to determine at what time Mrs Murphy was strangled.

It is believed her body was dumped at the building site on The Rise, off Griffith Avenue, during the hours of darkness on Monday night.

The building site on The Rise, almost directly opposite Mrs Murphy's home on Griffith Avenue, was busy throughout Monday and it is not thought possible the body could have been left there until after the site work finished on Monday evening. Workmen found the body lying beside a skip on Tuesday morning at around 8 a.m.

Mrs Murphy's disappearance was reported to gardai at Whitehall Station at around 1 a.m. on Tuesday by her husband, David.

Mrs Murphy, her husband and their four children, Jamie (8), Aaron (6), David (3) and four month old Amy had been living in the rented house in Griffith Avenue since leaving Co Clare in 1995.

When she left work on Monday morning, Mrs Murphy was wearing black ski pants, black polo neck, white walking shoes and a pink and blue anorak. She was five feet two inches tall and had light brown hair. Anyone with information is asked to contact gardai at Whitehall station.