Gardaí investigating the murder of Rachel O'Reilly at her home in Naul, Co Dublin, last October yesterday exhumed her remains and carried out a graveside forensic examination for about two hours.
Gardaí said they had recently received information about the killing that they believed warranted yesterday's exhumation.
Ms O'Reilly's remains were exhumed during an early morning operation by members of the Garda Technical Bureau. Gardaí began work at 6.30am and the grave was reinstated by 8.30am before news of the exhumation became known.
Ms O'Reilly's parents, Jim and Rose Callely, and her husband, Joe, were informed of the decision to exhume the remains at Balgriffin Cemetery yesterday morning. However, they were not present when the exhumation took place.
Minister for Justice Michael McDowell signed a ministerial order allowing gardaí to exhume the remains.
Ms O'Reilly had been found dead at her home in Baldarragh by her mother.
The alarm was raised when Ms O'Reilly failed to collect one of her two children from a creche.
She was killed after receiving several blows to the head with a blunt instrument.
There were no signs of a struggle between Ms O'Reilly and her attacker and while the house had been disturbed, indicating a possible break-in, Ms Callely has said her family believes this may have been staged and that her daughter was probably killed by somebody known to her.
Three people, including the chief suspect, his male colleague and a female friend were arrested and questioned by gardaí last December but were released without charge.
No further arrests have been made and no charges have been brought.
However, gardaí are currently finalising a file on the case for the Director of Public Prosecutions.
They believe one piece of information in their possession places the main suspect at or about the scene of the murder at the time of the killing.
They have spent the last five months trying to gather further evidence that they believe the DPP would need before a criminal charge could be brought against the main suspect.
Meanwhile, the inquest into Ms O'Reilly's murder was yesterday told that the 30-year-old mother of two died after sustaining severe multiple head injuries, including a fractured skull and damage to her brain.
The dead woman's parents attended the brief opening session of the inquest before Dublin County Coroner's Court, sitting at Tallaght District Court, yesterday.
Her husband did not attend.
State Pathologist Prof Marie Cassidy told the inquest that she carried out a preliminary examination of Ms O'Reilly's remains at the murder scene in her home at Baldarragh, north County Dublin, on October 4th, the day of the murder.
Prof Cassidy said the following day she performed a full post-mortem.
This revealed the cause of death to be blunt force trauma to the head, inhalation of blood, a fractured skull and scalp lacerations. There was also "evidence of damage to the brain".
Ms Callely took to the witness box and a statement she gave to gardaí at the time of her daughter's murder was read back to her by Det Garda Peter McCoy.
In the statement she said that on October 5th last she went to the mortuary in Marino with her son-in-law Joe and his brother Derek. The group was accompanied by Supt Tom Gallagher.
Ms Callely said she was shown the body of a young woman. She identified the remains as those of her daughter Rachel.
She added that she last saw her daughter on September 29th, the week before the murder. Ms O'Reilly had called to her mother's home with her son Adam for lunch.
Insp Seán Galway of Balbriggan Garda station requested a six-month adjournment to allow gardaí more time to conduct their murder investigation.
The inquest will reopen on September 13th.
