Taxi driver helps in murder case

Maria McConnell was filmed leaving a Belfast club

Detectives investigating the murder of a young Belfast woman have said they are now being helped in their investigations by a taxi driver.

The body of Maria McConnell, 22, was found in a house in south Belfast 13 days she went missing on 15 July.

The police said they are now following a definite line of inquiry after their appeal for the taxi driver who picked Mis McConnell and a man from a Belfast city centre nightclub to come forward.

Maria McConnell: Missing for 13 days before her body was found

A police spokeswoman said the male taxi driver and others have been helping the inquiry team.

But she said detectives still want to speak to the anonymous man who made a number of calls to police in the early hours of Thursday 27 July, which led them to Miss McConnell's body in Canterbury Street.

"As this caller has not yet come forward, we would urge anyone who has any information which may lead to his identity to contact detectives," she said.

CCTV video footage showed Maria McConnell getting into the taxi in the early hours of 15 July after leaving Vicos club on Brunswick Street.

The young woman who lived in Coolnasilla Park East, west Belfast, with her parents, was on medication for depression when she vanished.

Mourners at her funeral on Thursday heard that she rarely left the house before the night she disappeared.

The police have made a series of appeals over the past three weeks for help in finding the taxi driver who picked Maria up at Brunswick Street.

Last week a 21-year-old man was remanded in custody last week charged with murdering Maria McConnell.