It is believed that houseto-house inquiries among Kearney's neighbours have increased garda focus on their chief suspect. At least one neighbour has claimed to have seen the suspect in the area at the time, despite the person's claim to have been elsewhere.

The murdered mother of one will be buried this afternoon in Dalkey. Her body was removed from the family home last night and taken to the Church of the Assumption in Dalkey. A large crowd was present to pay their respects to the 38-yearold who ran a hotel on the island of Majorca.

Kearney's maiden name, McLaughlin, was used to announce details of the removal and funeral in Friday's newspapers.

Kearney's parents, Deirdre and Owen, were said last night to be heartbroken over the death of their daughter.

Her six sisters and one brother also attended the removal.

The death notice described Kearney as a "devoted mother and beloved daughter" and said she would be desperately missed by her family and many friends.

A relative of the victim made the gruesome discovery of her body on the morning of 31 January. Kearney's body was discovered in a locked bedroom in her home at Knocknashee in Goatstown. She had been strangled to death with a flex from a vacuum cleaner. It is believed that the scene had been altered to make it appear as if she had taken her own life.

Gardai arrested a man over a week ago in relation to the killing but he was later released without charge.

He was detained on Thursday of last week but gardai were allowed to question him for only 12 hours before his release. Detectives will now be required to produce new evidence in the case before the person can be arrested again for further questioning.

It is believed that Kearney's killer was known to her and had previously been in the house, complicating attempts to link the person to the killing using DNA. The fact that the chief suspect had previously been in the house means that their DNA may have been at the scene before the murder.

Gardai investigating the killing conducted house-tohouse inquiries in the Goatstown area and also set up checkpoints in the Knocknashee estate. It is believed that these inquiries have yielded information which may prove vital in the case.

Siobhan Kearney and her husband Brian owned a small hotel in the Soller region of Majorca, which they purchased in late 2002 and opened in early 2003. The couple spent the summer months working in the hotel and returned to Dublin in the winter.

However, it is believed that at the time of the killing they were living apart and were in the process of separating.

The couple have a three-yearold son Dan, who was in the house when his mother was killed.