A GARDA search for human remains was due to resume in Co Wicklow this morning as part of the investigation into the disappearance and presumed murder of a teenage woman three years ago.
Marioara Rostas (19), was last seen begging at traffic lights in Dublin’s south inner city in January 2010.
Following a tip-off, a Garda team yesterday searched woodland owned by Coillte along Sally Gap about five kilometres from the village of Manor Kilbride. The search was stopped yesterday evening and was due to resume this morning. It was the third Garda search this week in remote parts of Co Wicklow.
A two-day search of lands and a hunting lodge at Kilranelagh, west Wicklow, concluded yesterday as part of an investigation into the criminal past of convicted rapist Larry Murphy.
Last Sunday a shallow grave containing the remains of missing Dublin man James McDonagh were discovered by two hillwalkers at Slieve na mBan Óg mountain. McDonagh (28) had been murdered in October 2010 by an organised crime gang from west Dublin and his body dumped. None of the three cases is linked.
Yesterday’s search for the remains of Ms Rostas, a member of the Roma community, was the latest development in an intensive investigation into her disappearance. She is presumed to have been shot dead.
While a gangland criminal from Dublin’s south inner city is suspected of being centrally involved in the murder of Ms Rostas, gardaí have not discounted the theory that the fatal shots were discharged by another person, possibly a woman.
The male suspect is believed to have sexually assaulted Ms Rostas and later helped to dispose of her body after she had been shot dead. He is also a suspect in the shooting dead of Darren Cogan (19), Bluebell Road, Dublin, in the Blackhorse Inn, Inchicore, on June 25th last.
Ms Rostas was last seen on Lombard Street East in Dublin city centre at 2pm on Sunday, January 6th, 2010. She was begging at the junction of Pearse Street. She was seen by her younger brother talking to a man, believed to be the gangland suspect, in a car her brother described as a Silver Ford Mondeo.
Gardaí believe she went voluntarily in the car and was taken to an address in the south inner city. Once there she is believed to have been sexually assaulted over a number of days and then shot dead before her body was taken away and disposed of.
The house where she is believed to have been attacked was damaged by fire a short time after the suspected murder. Gardaí believe the fire was started deliberately to frustrate any forensic examination.
However, despite the fire damage, gardaí have found evidence of a gun being discharged at the property. A number of DNA samples taken from the house suggested Ms Rostas had been injured there.
The teenager had only been in Ireland for three weeks before she disappeared.