Adrian Ernest Bayley arrested in missing Irish woman's case - charged with rape and murder

Police locate body of Jill Meagher off a dirt road outside Melbourne

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Missing in Melbourne Australia, Irish woman Jill Meagher

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A 41-year-old Australian man, Adrian Ernest Bayley,  of Coburg, has been arrested in relation to the disappearance of Jill Meagher in Melbourne. It is expected that he will be charged with rape and murder on Friday.

The Victoria police homicide squad confirmed that Bayley had assisted their search for Meagher's body. Her remains were located off a dirt road in Gisborne South.

Reports from the Associated Press have confirmed that Bayley raped and murdered the 29-year-old radio professional from County Louth close to her home in Melbourne.

Meagher had been missing since last Saturday night. The alarm was raised by her husband, Dubliner, Tom (31) when she failed to return home. No other details have been revealed by the police.

By Wednesday evening the police had confirmed they are fearful that the CCTV evidence found in a bridal store’s security system, showed the moments before she was abducted.

The footage shows a man in a dark blue jacket walking by the store’s window. Minutes later, Meagher comes into view accompanied by a man in a blue hoodie sweater who is gesturing and speaking with her. She stops in front of the shop door, her mobile phone in hand. He walks on and she stands still for ten seconds before following him down the road.

A witness has also come forward stating that a car did a sudden U-turn on Sydney Road, coming towards Meagher as the man wearing a blue hoodie top closed in, reports the Courier Mail. The CCTV footage showed the car and a second man walking ahead of Meagher. The police declined to confirmed the witness reports.

Meagher (29) an employee of ABC, a local radio station, has been missing since the early hours of Saturday morning. She had been having drinks with colleagues at the Bar Etiquette, on Sydney Road, Brunswick. She was last seen by her friend, who offered to walk her home, at 1.30am (AEST). Her home is less than half a mile from the bar.

She can be seen on the CCTV footage at 1.41am walking down Sydney Road. She spoke to her brother on the phone for a couple of minutes at 1.45am but from then on there is no further evidence.

The police searched her home, where she lived with her husband Tom Meagher, twice. Police then ruled him out at a suspect.

Before this suspect was arrested her husband spoke to the Irish Daily Star. He said, “All I can do is keep going and keep doing what I have been doing — trying to keep it out there…We have to keep searching and keep hoping. There’s nothing really further I can say… the police know more than I do.”

Thoughout this nightmarish investigation her family had tried to remain positive.

Speaking to the Irish Independent earlier this week, Meagher’s uncle Michael McKeon, who lives in Drogheda,  County Louth, said the family is living a “nightmare.”

However, they were trying to keep some hope. He said, “The fact we haven't found her yet, there is still hope.

"It's an unreal nightmare. It's mind-numbing in many ways, your thought process kind of shuts down. It's the helplessness of the situation. They're looking for her but, to an extent, they've done all they can do."

He added, “The bottom line is we just want her back."

Here is Potter speaking about the CCTV footage at Tuesday’s press conference:

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