Body found in missing woman search

Irish police searching for a missing German journalist have found the decomposed body of a woman in undergrowth near Donore, County Meath.

The state pathologist travelled to the scene on Wednesday to carry out an examination following the discovery which is being treated as suspicious.

A police spokesperson said it was too early to say whether it was the body of Bettina Poeschel.

The 27-year-old was last seen at the end of September 2000 when she left Dublin to travel to Newgrange in Meath.

A police search operation was carried out at the time and members of her family launched a media campaign but, despite the efforts, nothing was found.

Unsolved cases

The discovery of the body comes after concerns were raised in the Irish Parliament that a serial killer was at large on the east coast of the country.

On Tuesday, Tom Enright, Fine Gael, told a parliamentary sitting that there was panic over a number of recent unsolved cases.

Mr Enright said senior police officers had raised the possibility the disappearances of eight women may be linked.

"I have spoken to quite a number of senior officers involved in the detection of crime and a lot of them seem to believe that there is a strong possibility there is a serial killer or killers involved," he said.

But Minister of State Tom Moffatt warned that no useful purpose was served by speculation in the absence of facts.

An Irish police spokesperson said there was no reason to believe all the missing persons cases were linked, but they could not rule it out.