Gardaí investigating the murder of Rachel O'Reilly are expected to send a file on the case to the Director of Public Prosecutions in the next fortnight following the release without charge yesterday of a woman suspected of withholding information in the case.
The 37-year-old woman was released from Garda custody at around 3.30pm after spending 24 hours at Drogheda Garda station. The woman, who is from south Dublin, is in a relationship with the chief suspect in the case.
However, the woman's father yesterday insisted his daughter had nothing to hide. He told RTÉ Radio 1's Liveline programme his family had been very upset at some recent media coverage of the case particularly reports that featured his daughter's name and photograph.
"We think it's very unfair," the man told presenter Joe Duffy.
He said his daughter rang him on Tuesday at 3pm to say she was being followed by the occupants of a blue car whom she believed to be photographers and that she was going to come home.
However, when she arrived at the house a short time later it transpired the blue car was a Garda car and she was arrested. She was informed by the arresting officers that they were detaining her for questioning in relation to Rachel O'Reilly's murder.
The man confirmed his daughter had been arrested in 2004 in the course of the Rachel O'Reilly murder investigation. "Myself and my wife were interviewed yesterday for about an hour. They (the gardaí) were very nice. They basically wanted to get our opinion of what we thought of (the chief suspect). We told them the truth.
"We've known him now for nearly 18 months, we know his children very well. He is very, very good with them. And we have seen nothing that would indicate he was involved in the murder. But that's just our opinion".
He said he met the chief suspect before Rachel O'Reilly's murder in October 2004. The relationship between the suspect and his daughter predated the murder, he said.
"She 100 per cent believes that (the chief suspect) is innocent. Nothing has altered her mind since November 2004 to today."
The chief suspect, a 35-year-old man known to Rachel O'Reilly, was also arrested on Tuesday. He was arrested in Dublin at 9.30am and taken to Drogheda Garda station. However, he was released without charge at around 9.30pm on Tuesday night when his 12-hour period of detention expired.
Like his girlfriend, the chief suspect had also been arrest in November 2004. The couple were rearrested on Tuesday after gardaí gathered new evidence about the movement of the chief suspect's car and the location of his telephone on the morning of the killing. Gardaí believe the evidence puts the chief suspect at or about the murder scene at the time of the killing when he claims he was around 10 miles away working in Dublin city.
