REMAINS REMOVED: family visits Bray Head before body taken away

Gardaí remove remains, found on Bray Head, Co Wicklow, on Tuesday and which are believed to be of missing woman Maura Reynolds.
Photograph: Garry ONeill

Gardaí are hopeful dental checks will positively identify skeletal remains found in undergrowth on Bray Head, Co Wicklow. A postmortem carried out yesterday was inconclusive.

However, gardaí investigating the discovery on Tuesday afternoon believe the remains are those of Maura Reynolds (78) who went missing from a Bray nursing home on Christmas night 2005.

Ms Reynolds's dental records will be cross-checked against the remains with results expected later today. Members of the missing woman's family visited the scene yesterday before the remains were taken for postmortem. The area is less than half a mile from the Tara Care Centre on Putland Road where Ms Reynolds was last seen.

Perished clothing was taken from the remains yesterday evening and it is hoped it could be used to identify the deceased. The bones were found in thick undergrowth by a local person working on hedgerow on the northwest slope of Bray Head at about 4pm on Tuesday.

Ms Reynolds has been missing presumed dead since she left the nursing home on Christmas night 2005, some time after she had returned from a family gathering. Her absence was not noticed until the following morning.

Originally from Donegal, Ms Reynolds had lived in Balally Drive in Sandyford, Dublin, before her health deteriorated. She had been a resident at the nursing home for 18 months before her disappearance.

© 2008 The Irish Times

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times