Gardaí investigating the death of a father of three on Cape Clear in west Co Cork are hoping that a postmortem will establish exactly how he died.
The man, named locally as David Latten (44) from Clonakilty, was spending the weekend with his family at the Chleire Haven campsite on Cape Clear when at the time.
It is understood that Mr Latten was playing football on a green area with one of his children at about 6pm on Saturday when the ball went over a 30ft incline on to rocks near the shoreline. He took a detour along the coastline at South Harbour to get to the foot of the incline to retrieve the ball.
When he failed to return, his wife went looking for him but could not find him. She thought Mr Latten may have returned via another route, but when she got back to the campsite and discovered he had not returned, she raised the alarm.
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The Irish Coast Guard marine rescue co-ordination centre at Valentia began a search operation, tasking the Irish Coast Guard Rescue 115 helicopter from Shannon to assist. Baltimore RNLI was also tasked and set to sea in its all weather boat, Alan Massey, which proceeded to South Harbour on Cape Clear, where Mr Latten was last seen.
However, a civilian boat found Mr Latten. It appeared he had slipped on rocks and suffered a head injury, and Baltimore RNLI and brought him aboard their inshore boat. Mr Latten was then transferred to the Alan Massey and brought back to Baltimore RNLI station, where he was handed over to the emergency services who pronounced him dead.
Mr Latten’s remains were later transferred to Cork University Hospital where a pathologist will carry out a postmortem on Monday to establish the exact cause of death.
Gardaí, who are investigating the tragedy with a view to preparing a file for the coroner’s court, are hoping the examination will establish whether Mr Latten died from a head injury or from drowning.
