WITNESS TO FIONA MURDER FOUND DEAD IN HIS CAR; Suspect overdoses.

Byline: By PATRICK O'CONNELL

A MAN gardai believe saw Fiona Sinnott's body being buried was found dead in his car five years ago, it emerged yesterday.

Detectives questioned heroin user Alan Wright in connection with the 19-year-old's disappearance in 1998.

But in 2001 the 35-year-old father of two was found dead in his car after overdosing on heroin. A postmortem ruled out foul play but an inquest into his death has never been held.

Shortly after Fiona went missing, the man "stone-walled" investigating officers in interviews.

But gardai were convinced he was a suspect and never ruled him out.

Yesterday a source said: "A number of people we interviewed as part of the original investigation supplied us with information that led us to suspect he was a witness.

"However, after pursuing this line of enquiry we came to a dead-end and we will now never be able to satisfactorily conclude investigations along this line of inquiry."

Details of the suspect came just two weeks after gardai dug up a field in South Wexford believing Fiona's body was buried there.

Nothing was found and the excavation was called off but gardai are now considering further digs in the area.

Fiona was last seen leaving a pub in the village of Broadway, near Rosslare, Co Wexford, in February 1998. She was with her partner Sean Carroll, the father of her one-year-old daughter Emma.

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MYSTERY: Fiona Sinnott with daughter Emma