GARDAÍ IN Waterford were last night continuing to question a man arrested in connection with the death of an elderly woman in a nursing home in Co Waterford early yesterday.
The 46-year-old man was arrested at Dublin Airport on suspicion of murdering his 83-year-old relative at Killure Bridge Nursing Home on the Airport Road in Waterford.
He was arrested under section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act and conveyed to Waterford Garda station in Ballybricken.
Gardaí were alerted at about 5.30am yesterday when a daughter of the dead woman rang them to say another relative had informed the family that he had suffocated the woman.
It is understood the man, who was living abroad, had returned to Ireland on Saturday to visit the elderly woman and offered to take a turn in keeping vigil by himself at her bedside late on Sunday night.
However, the woman died at about 1.30am yesterday and staff at the nursing home rang the woman’s family in Tramore to notify them that she had died.
The 46-year-old man returned to the family’s home in Tramore some 30 minutes later and, following a long night of reminiscing about the deceased woman, he informed a relative of what had happened.
Gardaí called to the nursing home yesterday morning but the woman had already been certified as dead by a local doctor.
Her body had been removed to a funeral home to prepare for her burial.
Nursing home staff had also removed the bed linen, including pillows from where the woman had been sleeping.
It is understood they were sent to the laundry before gardaí could retrieve them.
The remains of the woman were brought to Waterford Regional Hospital yesterday afternoon and a pathologist last night carried out a postmortem to establish the cause of her death.
Meanwhile, the man had left the house in Tramore where he had been staying and switched off his mobile phone as family members became concerned for his welfare.
Gardaí made inquiries at a local taxi firm and established he had caught a taxi to Dublin Airport with the intention of catching a flight to Frankfurt in Germany.
Gardaí notified colleagues in Dublin who arrested the man when he arrived at the airport.
They held him until officers arrived from Waterford to convey him back to Ballybricken for questioning.
Contacted last night by The Irish Times, a spokeswoman for the nursing home refused to comment and referred all queries regarding the events at the home to An Garda Síochána.
Located about 4km (2½ miles) from Waterford city on four acres of landscaped grounds, Killure Bridge Nursing Home was built in 2004.
It caters for 79 residents living in seven wings.