Stabbing death at apartment investigated

GARDAÍ ARE investigating the murder of a woman who was stabbed to death at a hotel and apartment complex in south Dublin.

The woman was found dead after another resident and a security guard at the Irish Management Institute (IMI) residential campus on Sandyford Road, Sandyford, south Dublin, raised the alarm shortly after 7am yesterday.

When gardaí arrived at the scene, they discovered the victim’s body under bedclothes in a rented apartment. They also found a man at the apartment who had suffered a number of stab wounds to the neck.

He was taken by ambulance to St Vincent’s hospital, Dublin. The injured man, a Romanian national in his 40s, underwent surgery yesterday.

His condition is not considered to be life-threatening.

Gardaí believe the man and the dead woman, a Romanian nurse in her 30s, were the only two people in the apartment when the stabbing occurred.

Gardaí will question the injured man when he is well enough. The investigating team is not looking for anybody else in relation to the murder, which is being treated as a domestic incident.

The man’s injuries are believed to have been self-inflicted.

Garda sources said the woman had come to live in Dublin a number of years ago and had been working in a south Dublin nursing home for some time.

She was due in work yesterday morning, and her employers were trying to contact her at the time of her murder.

She is believed to have been in a relationship with the man who was found injured at the apartment. He regularly travelled between Ireland and Romania.

He was renting the accommodation where the killing took place. Gardaí believe the woman was staying with him overnight.

A resident and security guard at the complex heard noise at about 7am and went to investigate. They also called gardaí.

When they arrived at the scene they found the woman’s body and the injured man.

The knife which gardaí believe was used in the killing was found at the scene. It was taken from the accommodation for technical examination.

Members of the Garda Technical Bureau spent yesterday examining the property.

Deputy State Pathologist Dr Michael Curtis examined the woman’s body at the scene before it was removed for a postmortem examination.

An IMI spokesman said the IMI residence is advertised as a three-star 50-bedroom hotel and that it is also used on occasion by people who are attending courses at the institute. Neither the dead woman nor the injured man was ever a student at the institute.

Hotel operator Prem Group, which manages the accommodation on behalf of the IMI, said the facilities provided short-term corporate accommodation.

In a short statement, the company also confirmed that it was assisting gardaí in their investigations.