Prime time

It now seems that they were mistaken. We don't know how close they were to the actual attack and what they actually saw. From the reports emerging today regarding DNA evidence examined, the Gardai say it is not possible that the suspect held, had committed the crime. The Gardai were acting on information received and have now concluded their investigations in that particular regard. They have prevented a potential miscarriage of justice by undertaking a professional investigation. There are often non productive routes in crime investigation, but they have to be pursued until concluded.

The investigation now continues in probably more difficult circumstances, without a main suspect. The bike that they have discovered seems to be a focused line of investigation - how long will it take for someone to provide information about it?

This case, like many others, may well rely on additional people coming forward with partial information that can be added to other evidence and we do not have a good track record on that in this country. There are many long term high profile cases still open because Gardai believe someone knows, but hasn't said.

I hope for the sake of the family in particular and society in general, that anyone who has fact or suspicion comes forward as soon as possible. Bring the info forward and let the Garda investigation take its course.

I wouldn't be critical of people giving recall evidence after such a traumatic event. They did their best but human recall can be very unreliable, particularly when trauma is involved.

There is however a lot of jumping to conclusions in society generally at the moment and some of the comments posted on this thread are worth re-considering under mature reflection and in the light of the actual outcome concerning the man held.

The Gardai have to be allowed to do their job, and society needs to help them to do so, by providing information and letting them do the investigations.

A lot of murderers in Ireland have just gone about their business as usual after the murder, thinking that running away would arise suspicion.

It’s the train of communication that is wrong. The impression was given or widely taken that they had caught their man pretty much red-handed. Details about the individual got posted widely. There seemed to be no other person possibly under suspicion. Just a matter of waiting for the official evidence.

Then he is justifiably released as innocent of this crime, but everyone in town knows who he is. There is a murderer on the loose and all we know is they are connected with a bicycle. Unless we have been on Twitter we have not the vaguest idea of the description of the person, who could be anywhere.

Official communications do not get described as 'messages to media'.

Some of the reporting agencies publishing quotes regarding this case are not even media organisations. All too frequently these days various reporting agencies, traditional broadcast/print and otherwise are falling over themselves to get the word out first - often when they should hold back for verification. The Guards can not be blamed for a lot of the quote reporting that gets attributed to them and circulated. Public demand for instant gratification often results in bad reporting, particularly with new internet based media outlets.

An officially released Garda position comment I heard reported yesterday afternoon said that the Guards 'were keeping an open mind'. That was a formal communication statement officially released and it spoke volumes in terms of what then actually happened.

Yes this was the first thing that stood out to me yesterday, why have 50 on the case if they were no longer seeking anyone.

I don't feel any sympathy for the man released from custody without charge.

He committed violent crimes in the past.

That puts him on the suspect list every time there's a violent crime in his vicinity in the future.

That's on him.

There was one in CA but the mod closed it due to infractions.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058227597/female-jogger-killed-in-tullamore-mod-note-in-op/p5

?

Would he be a chap with a bit of a sun tan.

Is the bike in the photo released by Gardai the actual bike or a similarish model, ie there could be differences on the actual bike?

I've thought that myself. If the rumours are true, how will the woke crowd be able to reconcile two seemingly champion causes for them colliding.