DNA tests are to be carried out later today to ascertain if a woman found stabbed to death in Phoenix Park was a Romanian national.
Gardaí said DNA samples were brought into the country after contact was made with a family in Romania yesterday.
More than 40 officers have been working on the case, with gardaí liaising with Interpol and combing homeless shelters and refuges in Dublin. Photographs of the dead woman have also been issued in a bid to uncover her identity.
Gardai believe the woman, thought to be aged between 30 and 40, was killed last Tuesday evening or early Wednesday morning.
A €10,000 reward has being offered for information that can identify the woman.
Despite an extensive public appeal both in Ireland and internationally through Interpol, the woman’s body has not been identified a week after it was discovered in the Military Road area.
She was 4ft 10in, of medium build, with brown shoulder-length hair and aged in her 40s. She had a number of distinctive moles on her face including one on her left temple, one under her right eye and another under her lips.
She was wearing a green or grey zip-up fleece, a striped red and blue top, three-quarter length pink leggings and pink fleece socks. She had gold nail varnish on her toes.
The woman was wearing a gold religious medal, a gold Celtic cross necklace, Creole-type hooped-earrings and a plain silver-coloured hairclip. She also wore a pair of size 5 Karrimor trainers.
A black Raleigh woman’s bicycle with a back carrier was found near the scene, but gardaí are unsure if it belonged to the victim.
The woman’s body was discovered on Wednesday, August 5th, by two passersby. Investigators believe that she had been killed a short time prior to the discovery of her body and the murder had taken place in the same area.
A postmortem revealed that the woman died as a result of internal trauma caused by multiple stab wounds to her upper body.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Crimestoppers on 1800 25 00 25