A man questioned over the death of a mother-of-three in Waterford city has today been released without charge.
Gardaí found Co Tipperary woman Brenda Ahern dead after suffering serious head injuries at about 2.30am yesterday. A Garda source believed that the woman had been “attacked with a poker” at her sister’s family home.
Local sources said that Ms Ahern had been babysitting her twin sister Lisa’s two-week-old infant Saoirse and two other daughters at Lisa Ahern’s home in Richardson’s Meadow, Kilcohan, near the city centre.
A mother of three girls aged between seven and 13, Ms Ahern had been living with her sister and her partner John at Kilcohan, before moving with her own daughters to a house in Woodlawn Grove, locals said yesterday.
Another sister had been looking after Brenda Ahern’s children at Woodlawn Grove when the attack occurred, locals said yesterday. The Ahern family are originally from Clonmel in Co Tipperary.
A man, who was known to Brenda Ahern, was arrested in the early hours of yesterday and held at Waterford Garda station overnight under section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act.
Ms Ahern’s body was taken to Waterford Regional Hospital, while gardaí preserved the scene pending technical examination and requested the assistance of State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy.
Dr Cassidy carried out a postmortem yesterday and while no results were released, it is expected to reveal that she died from head injuries.