AN IRISH man who spent nearly 30 years trying to prove he was the rightful heir to the multimillion dollar fortune of a woman in the US has died.
Dermot O’Regan, Minister’s Cross, Crookstown, Co Cork, died unexpectedly last Saturday. He will be buried today following Requiem Mass in Ballincollig.
Mr O’Regan, who was in his late 60s, wanted his chance to prove with DNA evidence that he was the rightful heir to the multimillion fortune of Mary Ellen Sheehan.
Mr O’Regan, who co-founded O’Regan Precast in Cork and was a respected businessman, claimed he was the only living relative of Ms Sheehan, and that he should get the money. Initially, suggestions were that the estate was in the region of $100 million, but it is understood that the figure was hyped up by the media in the US and was actually far less.
Ms Sheehan, who never married and was a recluse, died intestate in Savannah, Georgia, in 1983. The family fortune was accumulated by her father, William, who invested in property.
The administrator of her estate placed advertisements in Irish newspapers, and many Irish and US families lodged claims to her fortune. In 1990, Mr O’Regan lost his case in the US courts to prove his entitlement to Ms Sheehan’s fortune.
In 2004, Mr O’Regan obtained permission to exhume the body of his grandfather, Jeremiah O’Regan, to try to prove he was a brother of Ellen O’Regan, who married William Sheehan in the US and whose last surviving daughter, Mary Sheehan, left a large estate in Savannah, Georgia, when she died in 1983.
A US forensic anthropologist, Dr Karen Ramey Burns, from the University of Georgia, took three samples to see whether she could obtain a match with a sample taken from Ellen Sheehan’s body, which was exhumed at Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah.
However, a Savannah genealogist who was appointed by the coroner to work with Dr Burns confirmed that all three DNA tests had proved negative. However, Mr O’Regan continued his battle, confident that further DNA tests would prove a family link.
The estate was eventually distributed to other unnamed claimants.