Gardai discovered shortly after she was murdered that Ms Belinda Pereira's Sri Lankan parents did not know their daughter was working as a prostitute. She is believed to have started working in the Wimbledon area of London after a woman contact put her in touch with clients.
About 400 people have been interviewed in the 19 months since Belinda Pereira's murder. A number of blood samples have been taken for DNA profiling and fingerprints have been compared with those found in the Dublin apartment.
Ms Pereira came to work in Christmas week in Dublin after contacting an Irish pimp through an advertisement in a London events guide. The man and a criminal associate advertised the services of their prostitutes giving a mobile phone number advertised in In Dublin magazine. Ms Pereira is believed to have been working as a prostitute to fund her mother's return to Sri Lanka after her parents' marriage broke down.
Gardai interviewed a number of prostitutes in London who worked in the same way, coming to work in Dublin for a week at a time from a city centre apartment.
Ms Pereira is not believed to have been using drugs. No traces were found during the post-mortem. Her parents believed she had a well-paid office job.
Gardai believe Ms Pereira knew her killer. There were no defensive wounds on her body and there was no sign of forced entry. The blunt instrument used as a murder weapon, possibly a lump hammer, has never been found.
Gardai have ruled out the involvement of a number of English suspects. Yesterday's inquest was described as "pure formality".
One garda involved in the investigation described it as "one of the saddest murders" he had ever investigated. "The only thing these women see of Dublin is the airport, a taxi to the apartment and back. She was there in that little rabbit-hutch of an apartment for a week on her own," he said.
