A woman who moved to Ireland from New York has been murdered at her home in Killarney, County Kerry.
And a man who Gardai were seeking in connection with the death of Jamey Carney has fled the country.
Gardaí said that a man they want to speak to in connection with the murder of the 43-year-old mother of a teenager earlier this week has fled the country.
According to reports, it is believed that the man took a bus from Killarney in the early hours of Tuesday morning and flew out of Dublin Airport to the Middle East, where he is originally from.
Jamey Carney, the mother of a teenage girl, was found dead at her home in Killarney last Tuesday.
According to an RTE report, detectives believe she was attacked and killed some time before her body was discovered in an upstairs room at the house.
The post-mortem examination to establish the cause and time of Ms. Carney's death has been completed but the results are not being released.
Again, according to RTE: "Gardaí have been contacting international law enforcement agencies, including Interpol and Europol, after they discovered the man, whom they describe as a significant person of interest, had left the country.
"The man knew Ms. Carney, and gardaí believe he may have information that can assist them in the murder investigation.
"Gardaí in Killarney have described a timeframe of between 11 p.m. on Monday night and 5 a.m. Tuesday to be of relevance to the murder investigation. They are examining CCTV and dashcam footage from that period - the time the man is believed to have left Kerry. They have also been in contact with airline and transport authorities."
The report added that the Garda National Immigration Bureau is also assisting the investigation in building up a profile of the man and how he came to be in Ireland.
It is believed he first arrived in the UK and spent some time there before he came to Kerry and gardaí have been in contact with the police and immigration authorities there.
Ms. Carney, who was originally from New York - reportedly from Westchester County just north of New York City - moved to Kerry in 2021 and is being remembered as a kind and loving person who had a positive disposition in her dealings with others. She worked locally and was very involved in the local community.
The Irish Independent was reporting Friday: The boyfriend of American woman Jamey Carney was in Turkey by the time an international alert for his whereabouts was issued.
Ahmad Al-Saqar (28) is the man who gardaí have described as a “person of interest” in relation to the death of the mother of one.
He was in a relationship with the 43-year-old in recent months and was in her company on Monday.
Mr Al-Saqar, who is originally from Jordan, flew out of Dublin Airport on an early-morning flight on Tuesday. He got a 3am bus from Killarney, Co Kerry, to Dublin Airport.
His current location is unknown, but he is understood to have contacts in Turkey, Jordan and Syria. He is fluent in Arabic, French and English.
By the time Ms Carney’s body was found at lunchtime on Tuesday, Mr Al-Saqar had landed in the west Asian country.
Mr Al-Saqar, who has been in Ireland for two years, had been in a relationship with Ms Carney in the months before her death and they regularly posed together for photographs on social media. He is understood to have been seen with Ms Carney on Sunday and Monday.
A cousin of Jamey, Ryan Fox, said news of her killing came as "a shock and a nightmare."
Speaking to RTÉ's Prime Time Fox described Ms. Carney as "the sweetest, most caring, most humanitarian" person he had ever known.
He said Jamey was someone who would "take off the shirt on her back" to help another person, and had worked hard to build a life in Ireland for herself and her teenage daughter after moving here in 2021.
Describing how Ms. Carney's family learned of her death, Mr. Fox said he received a phone call from Ms Carney’s mother, Kathy, who was "very upset" and "could barely get her words across."
"It's something that nobody expected because, two days before, there was a picture posted, everybody's smiling," Mr. Fox said.
Asked whether the family had any reason to believe Ms. Carney had been in danger while living in Ireland, Mr. Fox said they had received no indication that she feared for her safety.
"I had never gotten any communication like that because if I had, then measures would have been taken."
According to the RTÉ report, while the investigation into her death is ongoing, Mr. Fox said he wanted his cousin to be remembered for the person she was, rather than the circumstances of her death.
"My Jamey was proud to be Irish and proud to be American, and everybody that's known her in America or in Ireland knows what a huge heart she has.
"Jamey loves Ireland so much. Her friends were like her second family out there. She could not love the land of Ireland more, and she was so happy to be there."
Mr. Fox said her family now wanted to ensure no one else experienced a similar tragedy.
"We're all going to do everything in our power to make sure that this doesn't happen to more people like my cousin Jamey ... Nobody deserves that to happen," he said.
Mr. Fox also said he did not want his cousin's death to become "some kind of martyrdom or some kind of political cause."
Returning to what he described as his cousin's humanitarian values, Mr Fox urged people not to respond to her death with prejudice.
"Do not use this to become bigoted or racist or prejudiced in any way. Bad people are in every group, and it is not the people who look like them who deserve to be blamed," he said.
"If you think about her, if you see her picture, if you read her story, please know that all she ever wanted was for everybody to have equal rights. She wanted to raise her daughter in a nice place like everybody intends to do, to raise a family and to be safe."
