Gardaí investigating the deaths of an English couple, whose bodies were found in their home in south Co Tipperary last month, have established that the pair were alive around a week before Christmas 2020.
Nicholas and Hilary Smith, whose bodies were found at their remote bungalow at Cloneen near Fethard, were seen on December 17th, 2020, when they drove just under 20km to collect prescription medicine from a pharmacy in Callan, Co Kilkenny.
The pharmacy visit is the last sighting of the English couple that gardaí have been able to confirm following three weeks of intensive inquiries by a team of officers based at Clonmel station, who removed a large quantity of documentation from their house for examination.
It is understood that technical examinations of a mobile phone and a laptop found in the house have so far not revealed any call, text or email activity that would suggest that either of the couple were alive later than December 17th, 2020. Mr Smith, a retired sea captain who worked on cruise ships in Australia, would have been 81 at that stage while Mrs Smith, who also worked on cruise ships, would have been 78.
The bodies of the reclusive couple were found in their bungalow at Rossane on June 20th when a neighbour, who thought the couple had sold up and moved away, noticed their car was parked to the rear of the house and contacted gardaí through an intermediary. Gardaí called to the house to carry out a welfare check and discovered Mr Smith’s body in a bedroom and Mrs Smith’s in the sitting room. It was clear that both had been deceased for several months.
Both bodies were removed to University Hospital Waterford where Chief State Pathologist Dr Linda Mulligan carried out postmortems. The results of toxicology tests on samples of tissue taken by Dr Mulligan, which gardaí hope will establish how the couple died, are still being awaited.
Gardaí have found nothing during their investigations to suggest that foul play was involved in the deaths, with neither body showing signs of physical violence or trauma and no indications of forced entry to the house.
Sources confirmed that the investigation team, who have already put out an inquiry to find next of kin in the UK through Interpol, plan to contact an Irish probate genealogy firm after The Sunday Independent reported that they had traced relatives of the couple.
Erin Research founder Padraic Grennan confirmed on Monday that his investigators had found that Mrs Smith had a 61-year-old son from a previous relationship and that Mr Smith had a brother living in London. He said he had been in contact with both men.
Mr Grennan said Mr Smith’s brother told his team that he had not been in contact with his brother, who was born in Norwich, for more than 25 years as he had been working at sea. This would corroborate what Mr Smith told a neighbour in Cloneen about having a brother in the UK.
He also confirmed that Mrs Smith’s son, who revealed he had not seen his mother for more than 55 years as she had been away at sea, had been raised by his maternal grandmother.
“He told me his mum didn’t keep in contact, but he had vague recollections of meeting Nick as a child and he knew that they had travelled the world on ships and that they had lived in Japan and Australia, but he was surprised to learn that they had settled in Tipperary,” he said.
“He wants to have a funeral ceremony for his mother in Ireland and that after she is cremated, he wants her ashes to be brought back to England as he is not able to travel due to poor health. He is very appreciative to the local community in Cloneen for the way they responded to the tragedy.”
The Irish Times has established that Mr Smith did not serve in the Royal Navy and was not involved in the Falklands War as some media outlets had reported. A Royal Navy spokesman confirmed they had checked their records and Mr Smith did not serve at any time.
The coroner for Co Tipperary, Joe Kelly, said he had yet to receive a file on the couple’s deaths from An Garda Síochána and said he would hold an inquest into both deaths in due course. He declined to comment further
