18/05/2005

Backpacker death no longer a murder inquiry

Police are no longer treating the death of an American backpacker in south Belfast as murder, detectives have said.

Ashly Rowland, 29, from New Mexico in the United States, died after sustaining a head injury in Fitzwilliam Street at about 7pm on Sunday.

Ms Rowland, who had arrived in Northern Ireland last month, had been staying at a hostel in the street, near Queen's University.

A woman who was questioned about the incident has been released on police bail.

Police initially said on Monday that they had begun a murder inquiry however, although they have now ruled that theory out, detectives said they were still investigating the circumstances behind the death.

(MB/SP)

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