Mother of two may have been knifed to death in family row
AN ANGRY row that first surfaced last week is believed to have led to the brutal stabbing of mother-of-two Ingrida Maciokaite.
Investigators are examining claims the Lithuanian (31) was killed in a stabbing frenzy after tensions between her and her former partner Edmundas Dauksa (48) heightened over the last number of days.
Ms Maciokaite was attacked and stabbed at the Bridgewater Mews apartments on Linenhall Street, in Dundalk, Co Louth, on Tuesday.
A bloodstained Mr Dauksa was arrested at the scene. It is understood there were a number of witnesses to the killing.
Gardaí in Dundalk have now launched a murder inquiry.
Ms Maciokaite and Mr Dauksa, who is also from Lithuania, are believed to have previously been in a relationship but they had parted. He is believed to be the father of her eldest child, a girl aged six, but is now in a new relationship.
Sources said a bitter row had erupted, and this may have been the root of the violence.
The scene remained sealed off for a time yesterday, and locals gave gardaí bunches of flowers to place at the gates of the flat at the spot where Ms Maciokaite was found.
Last night, gardaí said a 48-year-old man is due to appear before Dundalk District Court this morning charged in relation to the death.
Ms Maciokaite had been living in Dundalk for a number of years.
She worked in different places in the town, mainly in the cafe and restaurant sector.
Former colleagues at McCreesh’s Deli, on Avenue Road on the outskirts of the town, paid tribute to her.
“Ingrida was a hard worker and a nice person. She worked here around four years ago,” said one deli colleague.
In recent weeks Ms Maciokaite had started working in Ruby’s Tea Rooms on Crowe Street in the Williamson Mall. Staff declined to comment.
Friends and neighbours have paid tribute to her. “I am just devastated,” said a woman who was her neighbour and friend for more than two years.
“It is very, very upsetting,” Gretta Morton, another former neighbour in St Nicholas’s Avenue said.
“It is just a terrible thing to happen.”
Her husband Edward Morton said: “She was a lovely woman and was always seen walking up and down the street. She loved living here.”
A post-mortem examination was carried out by the State Pathologist’s Office in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda.
She was pronounced dead in the hospital on Tuesday after extensive efforts by medical staff to save her.