Gardaí investigating the murder of a man who may have been buried alive are focused on trying to bring to justice the gunman who fired the fatal shots and the person who paid him to carry out the killing.
A woman who was being detained for questioning about the murder of Steven O’Meara (26) in Co Wicklow in 2009 was on Thursday released without charge. She is suspected of being a prime mover in putting in place the plan to kill Mr O’Meara.
She was arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of the murder of Mr O’Meara in Ballydonnell Woods, Redcross, Co Wicklow, on August 6th, 2009.
The suspect, who is in her 40s, was detained at a Co Wexford Garda station under Section 50 of the Criminal Justice Act, which is used to investigate gang-related crime. Though the legislation allows for a suspect to be questioned for up to seven days without charge, the woman was released on Thursday after about 48 hours.
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She remains under investigation and gardaí are preparing a file for the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Gardaí believe she has direct knowledge of a payment made to the gunman who shot Mr O’Meara in a drug-related dispute before he was buried in the Wicklow woods.
A postmortem found he was shot in the trunk and leg. Asphyxia was a potential cause of death and it could not be ruled out he was still alive when he was buried. His remains were found on Christmas Eve, 2009, after men later convicted for their roles in the killing disclosed the burial location to gardaí.
Mr O’Meara, a father of four from Rosehill in Wicklow town, had a history of substance abuse and had undertaken periods of rehabilitation. He mixed with men involved in the drug trade.
Gardaí believe he had gone to the woods in Redcross to collect a €5,000 drug debt from a local man on behalf of a Dublin-based gang.
Mr O’Meara believed the money was going to be paid to him in the woods and he was driven there by an associate of the man who owed the money to the gang.
However, when they arrived, a group of people was waiting and Mr O’Meara was first assaulted before being shot and buried.
Clement Byrne, then aged 49, was in 2013 jailed for the manslaughter of Mr O’Meara.
Byrne, of Clonattin Village, Gorey, Co Wexford, said he punched Mr O’Meara in the woods before another man shot him dead.
Michael Dickenson, then aged 27, formerly of Darragh Park, Wicklow town, was in 2012 jailed for life for the murder of Mr O’Meara. Dickenson admitted driving the victim to the woods and witnessing the murder but insisted he did not know Mr O’Meara was going to be shot.
Aside from the two men convicted, several other people – including the suspected gunman – have also been arrested and released without charge as part of the near 16-year investigation.
A number of people with knowledge of the killing supplied information to the Garda in the months that followed and more information has been received recently. Garda sources said the investigation team was very hopeful others involved in the conspiracy would face justice.
