A man arrested for questioning after the remains of a woman were found on a Wexford-bound ferry has been released without charge.
The man, aged 40 years and known to the dead woman, was interviewed by gardaí and addressed all of the questions that were put to him.
He was released without charge before the expiry of the 24-hour period during which investigating gardaí were permitted to interview him. As he was being released, a postmortem on the remains of the dead woman was being finalised and gardaí were examining if her death was due to a personal tragedy rather than from any third party involvement.
Garda Headquarters later on Wednesday issued a statement stating the postmortem results were not being released due to “operational reasons”. However, the statement added the investigation into the woman’s death was continuing so it can inform the inquest process.
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That means the death is not being treated as a crime and the Garda’s inquiries going forward will be limited to collecting information for the inquest. The inquest process will be carried out under a coroner to determine the cause of death only.
“A Garda family liaison officer continues to engage with and support the family of the deceased,” the statement added.
Gardaí have confirmed they are not investigating any other public order issue on the ferry after the dead woman’s remains were found, apparently in a bathroom on board. It appears that while there was a deep level of shock and upset among the party the woman was traveling with, this did not result in any public order issue.
The woman, a 39-year-old with an address in Middlesex, died aboard the ferry yesterday afternoon. Gardaí were called to what they described as a “serious incident” on the Stena Nordica passenger ferry from Fishguard, though an armed Garda presence at the port was precautionary only.
A crime scene was declared by gardaí as the ferry docked at the Co Wexford port and underwent a forensic examination. Those steps were taken because the woman’s death was initially regarded as unexplained.
The captain of the ferry had made an emergency call reporting an “incident” had occurred.
Stena Lines also confirmed an incident took place onboard and, as a result, two ferries due to sail from the Europort to and from Fishguard were cancelled. Both the Tuesday 7.30pm sailing from Rosslare and Wednesday 1.30am ferry from Fishguard did not sail.
