Man arrested after woman (40s) found dead in Finglas

Gardaí investigating the killing of a woman in her 40s in Finglas, north Dublin, have arrested a man. An area in the Melville estate has been sealed off, with gardaí searching undergrowth for evidence.The man (50s) had left the scene and was not detained until seven hours after the woman’s body was discovered. Gardaí were alerted and arrived at the scene on Melville Terrace shortly after 4.30am, where they found the woman’s body.READ MOREThe Irish Times understands the woman had come from abroad to live in Ireland and suffered stab wounds in the attack. The arrested man had fled before being tracked down by gardaí at a retail premises. Gardaí carried out searches in the estate, which is on the outskirts of Finglas, off the Melville and Jamestown roads, in an attempt to locate any items he may have discarded.In a statement confirming the woman’s death, the Garda said: “The scene has been preserved for forensic examination by the Garda Technical Bureau. The coroner and the Office of the State Pathologist have been notified and a postmortem will be arranged in due course. “This investigation is being co-ordinated from an incident room at Finglas Garda station under the direction of a senior investigating officer. A family liaison officer has been appointed to support the family of the deceased.”The man was located at about 11am and taken to a Garda station in west Dublin for questioning. He is being detained under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act 1984, which allows for gardaí to hold suspects for up to 24 hours without charge. Gardaí were harvesting CCTV from the area around Melville area on Monday and conducting house to house inquiries, blocking off a large section of the estate.They have appealed for witnesses to come forward and want to speak to anyone who was in the Melville Terrace area between midnight and 5am on Monday. The force has also appealed to anyone in the area who was recording video footage, including dashcam, to make that available to the investigation team.