A body discovered in bushes near the Liffey Valley Shopping Centre in west Dublin yesterday afternoon may have been there for some time, local people were speculating at the scene last night.
The remains of what are believed to have been a man in his 20s were discovered at around 4pm yesterday.
Gardaí were preserving the scene last night before the arrival of deputy State pathologist Dr Michael Curtis.
He is expected to perform a postmortem there sometime later this morning, until which further information is unlikely to be available, according to a spokesman for the Garda Press Office.
A crowd of about 50 people were at the scene throughout most of the evening, many of them children.
No one present expressed any knowledge of the identity of the dead man.
Many local people said they were mystified as to who the man could have been or as to how the body had lain there undiscovered for what appeared to be some time.
It was found in a bushy area of hills and dips at the Liffey Valley shopping complex, just across from the Marks & Spencer supermarket.
It is an area which is beside a busy slip road that runs off the M50 connecting it with the N4 route which heads west.
Last night the body was covered in a plastic bag.
A number of gardaí from the Ronanstown station were at the scene and planning to maintain a presence overnight until the deputy State pathologist arrived this morning.
As darkness began to fall and night drew in the crowds of local people began to disperse.
