Detectives are now probing whether Mark Hennessy — who abducted and killed Jastine Valdez in a random attack — is the infamous Irish serial killer who could have taken several missing women.

Gardai suspect a serial killer may be behind the high profile disappearance of several women, whose murdered bodies are thought to be buried in the Wicklow Mountains.

All of the women vanished without a trace in the 1990s with their devastated families fearing they were abducted and murdered.

Hennessy’s DNA profile will now be checked against historic and recent disappearances to see if he is a serial killer.

It is now being assessed by investigators as they attempt to unravel the mystery surrounding the disappearances of six women who went missing in Leinster between 1993 and 1998.

The victims include 18-year-old Deirdre Jacob as well as Annie McCarrick, 26, Jo Jo Dullard, 21, Deirdre Jacob, 18, Fiona Pender, 18, Ciara Breen and Fiona Sinnott, both 17.

Hennessy, 40, was killed by officers hunting for missing Jastine Valdez, 24, near Dublin on Sunday before her body was discovered on Monday.

The brutal abduction and killing reminded many of the unsolved cases of Ireland’s missing women, which has featured in a book about serial killers around the world.

Killers on the Loose by US crime expert Antonio Mendoza refers to ‘The South Dublin Killer’ as the man responsible for the disappearance of several women over two decades.

It includes details of the profile gardai were given by retired FBI profiler Bob Ressler who told officers that the killer is probably self employed or working as a driver, single or separated, and he believed that the killer lives in the southern edge of Dublin or north Wicklow.

Here are the women still missing whose cases remain unsolved:

JoJo Dullard

JoJo, 21, was last seen using a public payphone in the Moone area of Co Kildare. She had been hitchhiking home to Kilkenny from Dublin in November 1995 before she vanished without trace.

Ciara Breen

The 17-year-old vanished from her home in Dundalk, Co Louth where she lived with her mother Bernadette, in the early hours of February 13, 1997, after going out to meet someone.

Deirdre Jacob

The 18-year-old was walking home to her parents’ house in Newbridge, Co Kildare, in 1998 and the student teacher was just yards away from home when she disappeared.

Fiona Pender

The 25-year-old was seven months pregnant when she was last seen alive in August 1996 in Tullamore, Co Offaly, after she was dropped off at her home after a day’s shopping.

Annie McCarrick

Annie, 26, was last seen in Johnnie Fox’s pub in Glencullen at the top of the Dublin mountains with a man wearing a wax jacket who has never been identified.

Fiona Sinnott

The 19-year-old, who has been missing since 1998, was last seen drinking in Broadway, near Rosslare, on February 8 1998.