The finding of a woman's body in a burnt-out car has provoked rumour and fear in the local Nigerian community, writes Fiona Gartland.
On Monday last, 35-year-old Abiola Sukuval Williams dropped her eight-year-old son to school and went to work as on any other day. She worked as a manager of Kimex, a cash-and-carry store on Bolton Street in the north inner city owned by her aunt. The family own a second store of the same name on the Crumlin Road. A hard-working and enterprising woman, Williams was instrumental in the establishment of the business, helping her aunt from the outset when she came to Ireland in 1999.
Her young cousin, who studies at the DIT college across the road from the cash-and-carry, dropped in to see her at lunchtime. She was in good form. He got some lunch and there was banter between them because he was short of cash to pay for the goods.
She visited the GPO on O'Connell Street to pay a few bills and perhaps send some money to her daughter who is living at home in Nigeria.
She collected her son from the school near their apartment on Hendrick Street, just off Blackhall Place in Dublin 7, and took him back to the store with her, as she always did. They were always together, family say, and she liked to bring him with her wherever she was going. At closing time, she locked up the store and went home with her boy.
At 4.30am on Tuesday morning the fire brigade was called out to Hendrick Street to put out a fire in a car. When they extinguished the flames they found the charred remains of Williams sitting in the front seat of her silver Nissan Primera. Gardaí found her apartment door open and, inside, her son fast asleep.
The nightmare began for her family shortly before 1pm on Tuesday when her aunt got a call from gardaí. Williams's cousin, Akeem Sanusi, was sent to the scene to see if she could possibly be dead. On the way he phoned the store and her mobile; both phones rang out but he told himself it was a lie, she must just have closed the store to run an errand as she sometimes did.
When he got to Hendrick Street he found the area cordoned off and gardaí and reporters everywhere.
"What is the car?" he asked gardaí and when they told him, he knew. He called his mother and told her: "Yes, it is her, believe it."
Shock set in; gardaí could not let him see her and he was directed to the Bridewell Garda Station. He wondered about her son and was told that a social worker was looking after him. He phoned her brother in England and her mother in Nigeria.
FAMILY AND FRIENDS gathered at the scene of her death; they brought flowers, they set up a book of condolence, they keened. Anger flared briefly when rumours went around that two white youths had been seen running from her car. There was a demonstration outside the Bridewell. But gardaí were quick to deny the rumours.
A post-mortem was carried out at the city morgue. Williams was found to have died from burns and smoke inhalation. The Garda said they could find no evidence of criminal action.
"We are satisfied that no crime has been committed," a Garda spokesman confirmed.
But her family cannot believe it. The inference that Williams may have committed suicide and in such a brutal manner is inexplicable to them.
"She can't just stay in a car and die of smoke and burns," Sanusi says.
"There are many other ways of committing suicide. Somebody knows what happened to her. We are pleading with the Garda to please just review it, we are pleading for anyone who knows what happened to come forward. We need to know what happened to Abi."
The wider Nigerian community is also feeling the effects of the death. There is fear where there was none. One woman, who does not want to be named, says the death has made her nervous walking in the city.
"I got into my car this morning, I checked in the back seat before I started to drive," she says. "It is frightening, we don't know what happened to her.
"A racist attack here? No I don't believe it, that doesn't even happen in Limerick. Maybe she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, maybe they think she was someone else."
Speculation as to what happened to her abound; locals say that her car was broken into a week before her death and suggest there might be a connection. There are suggestions too that she was suffering from depression. But her family doesn't accept that.
"She came to get stuff for the shop on Saturday," Sanusi says. "She was fine, not nervous or afraid. She was honest, reliable, hard-working. She didn't deserve to die."
Gardaí are keen to allay the fears of the community and to refute any suggestions that they are not looking hard enough because of the colour of Williams's skin.
"If there was any evidence at all that there was something sinister here, we would set up a massive investigation," a spokesman says.
"We are aware of the rumours and some people think there is a big cover-up. But we made exhaustive inquiries and we are satisfied that no crime has been committed. It is a terrible thing to have happened."
When the inquest is held, he adds, all of the facts of the case will come out.