A young man described as an "office type" was seen running from the spot where the south Dublin teenager, Raonaid Murray, was stabbed to death two weeks ago, it has emerged.
The information came as Raonaid's parents yesterday issued an appeal to anyone who knows who killed their daughter to come forward and not "shield a murderer".
Mrs Deirdre Murray and her husband, Jim, agreed to appear at the press conference in Dun Laoghaire Garda station to help investigators to find Raonaid's killer.
The investigation team is still waiting for results of forensic tests which they hope might help convict her killer, if the man is caught.
The officer in charge of the Dublin Eastern Division, Chief
Supt Pat Culhane, yesterday revealed there had been more than 20 "nominations", names given to gardai possibly identifying the man whose photofit had been issued the previous week.
This man, who acted suspiciously after taking a taxi from the centre of Dun Laoghaire about an hour after Raonaid was killed, has yet to come forward or be positively identified. Gardai insist he is not a suspect but someone they wish to eliminate from their inquiries.
Chief Supt Culhane appealed to anyone who suspected they knew something about the killer to come forward. "The answer is out there. Somebody knows. We are talking about an area of a half-mile radius between Silchester and Scotts public house."
This appeal was reiterated by the Murrays in their statement yesterday, read by Mr Murray. They said: "We are heart-broken. On behalf of myself, my wife Deirdre, our son Daniel and our daughter Sarah, I want to say how devastated we all are by the murder of our beautiful daughter and sister Raonaid. We are encouraged by the tireless efforts of the police to track down Raonaid's murderer.
"Nothing can bring Raonaid back but we are appealing to anyone with any information which might help the police to solve this savage crime to come forward. Someone knows who killed Raonaid. Don't shield a murderer.
"Something dreadful has happened. A beautiful young life has been destroyed and taken. Our hearts are broken."
It emerged yesterday that a woman living in Silchester Road, close to where Raonaid was killed, saw a young man run along the road from the direction of the lane way where the attack took place. She saw this man, whom she described as in his early 20s with short, neat hair and wearing a short-sleeved shirt.
She used the term "office type" to describe him. The man ran past a stationary taxi which was dropping a fare in Silchester Road but neither the taxi-driver nor his passenger noticed the young man.
The witness said the young man ran eastwards from the laneway towards Adelaide Road or the "Metals", the pathway along the DART line running from Glenageary to Glasthule.
Detectives are also investigating an account from a taxi-driver that he saw a young man wiping his hands on his bomber jacket in Silchester Park near the spot where Raonaid was killed.
The officer running the investigation, Det Supt Martin Donnellan, yesterday re-appealed to anyone who was in the general Glenageary/Dun Laoghaire/Glasthule area, particularly taxi-drivers, to come forward.
The investigators have still to discover what happened during the 30- to 40-minute "gap" between 11.20 p.m. on Friday September 3rd when Raonaid left Scotts pub in Dun Laoghaire and the point at 12.10 a.m. when they believe she was stabbed in the laneway off Silchester Road. The journey takes only 15 minutes on foot and detectives have still to determine what happened in the intervening time.
While gardai have not ruled out the possibility Raonaid was murdered by a stranger, they are still pursuing lines of inquiry relating to men who knew her.