DETECTIVES investigating the murder of a homeless woman in the Phoenix Park a year ago are planning to travel to Romania to interview her family in a bid to solve the mystery killing.

50-year-old mother-of-two Eugenia Bratis was found stabbed to death last August in the Phoenix Park. Detectives believe she may have been murdered by fellow Romanians in a botched robbery.

Officers are probing whether members of the Roma community may have targeted the woman because they were aware she was earning significant sums of money begging. Bratis was not a member of the Roma community and was living in Ireland alone, begging for money she was sending home to her two grown-up children for their education.

One problem for gardaí is that members of the Roma community that they suspect may have more information or be responsible for the killing have been difficult to locate. Cultural differences have also been a deterrent to the investigation, as much of the Roma community has an inherent mistrust of the police. The Roma community in Ireland is a transient group and gardaí believe it is possible those responsible have left the jurisdiction because of the publicity generated.

Detectives have been in regular contact with the woman's family. By travelling to Romania and interviewing several members of her family, gardaí are hopeful they could learn vital information which may help catch her killers. Another challenge is that Bratis was not identified for 10 days, making it difficult to establish suspects and trace movements.

It is believed that Bratis, from Timisoara, had been in Ireland since at least May. She had previously worked as a waitress in Romania and tried to secure employment in Dublin but when she was unsuccessful, she began to beg. In November, two Romanian nationals were arrested on suspicion of withholding information about the murder but were later released without charge. Detectives have examined whether Bratis became a target of the Roma community, who generally work in begging gangs and were unhappy she was working as a "sole operator". Some members can be "territorial" about "begging spots" in the city centre and Bratis may have fallen foul of these individuals. She had been seen in the months before her murder begging in Dublin, but had never before come to the attention of gardaí.