Gardaí probing Louth teen’s murder hope for forensic lead

GARDAÍ are expecting forensic results today which could lead to a breakthrough in the investigation of the murder of a teenager at the weekend.

Nearly 20 people who were socialising with Cameron Reilly, 18, from Louth on the night he was strangled have voluntarily provided DNA samples to gardaí.

Detectives are investigating if the murderer is someone known to the teenager, whose remains were discovered on Sunday in Dunleer, Co. Louth, hours after he was last seen alive.

Many young people who were with him last Saturday night are keen to rule themselves out of the inquiry.

Gardaí believe the first-year college student may have been strangled after socialising with around 20 others in woods near his grandparents’ home.

‘Gardaí have interviewed the majority of friends who were with him that night,’ a source told the Mail.

‘They are all co-operating with the investigation and are providing DNA.’

The teenager was last seen in the vicinity of Ardee Road in Dunleer at about 12.30am on Saturday. His body was discovered at 8am in Rivervale.

CCTV footage from a local takeaway, not far from where the teenager’s body was discovered, shows his last known movements. It puts Cameron in Enzio’s takeaway and pizzeria in Dunleer at around 12.30am on Saturday.

It is believed he then walked in the direction of his grandparents’ house in the Beechwood estate, just off the Ardee Road, but he never arrived.

A vigil was held in the town on Monday evening, with hundreds in attendance at the local church.

Gardaí have appealed to anyone who was with Cameron before he died, or has information about his movements on Friday evening or Saturday morning, to contact them.

They also asked taxi drivers and bus drivers or anyone with dashcam footage recorded in the area to make it available to them.