Gardaí investigating the violent deaths of a mother and her two young sons in south Dublin suspect the woman killed the boys before taking her own life. Conor Lally and Frank McNally report.
Mary Keegan (41) and her sons Glen (10) and Andrew (6) were found dead in the kitchen of their home at Killakee Walk, Firhouse, yesterday morning.
Senior Garda sources said Ms Keegan and her two sons had lost a lot of blood. The boys had both been stabbed repeatedly and Ms Keegan also had a number of knife wounds, which gardaí believe were self-inflicted. It is understood she had injuries to her wrists and bled to death.
Gardaí said while they would need to wait for the results of post- mortem examinations before confirming the cause of death, it appeared that all three had died from knife wounds.
Ms Keegan and her sons are believed to have been dead for some time but their bodies lay undiscovered during the weekend. Gardaí believe they probably died on Saturday and neighbours said the family had not been seen over the weekend.
The bodies were found after a caller to the Keegan home was unable to gain access to the property and alerted a garda who lived locally.
Uniformed gardaí from Tallaght arrived at the scene and they gained entry to the house at around 11.30am and found the three bodies.
"It was a terrible scene for any guard to have to come across, really awful," said one senior officer.
"Obviously, there was a lot of blood. We'll now begin trying to determine exactly what went wrong."
When the bodies were found gardaí left the house. They sealed off the scene and waited for Deputy State Pathologist Dr Michael Curtis to arrive.
The boys' bodies were removed to Tallaght hospital at about 6.15pm. Dr Curtis was due to carry out one postmortem examination at the hospital last night and was expected to examine the other two bodies this morning.
A technical examination was carried out yesterday and this will continue throughout today.
Around the same time as the gardaí came on the scene, Brian Keegan, the dead woman's husband and father of the two boys, returned to the house from a business trip to the United States.
Mr Keegan, who works as an engineer with the technical support unit of a Dún Laoghaire lawnmower business, was said to be in severe shock last night and was being comforted by friends and family members.
Ms Keegan had worked as a beautician and of late had been working part time in a bank. Gardaí said she had no history of mental illness.
Neighbours spoke of a normal, happy family.
Peter Hale, who lived three doors away from the Keegans said they were "a lovely family, with no domestic problems".
Glen was described by neighbours as a sports-loving 10-year-old who played hurling at nearby Scoil Treasa, where he was in fourth class.
He was also due to appear last night in a school production of Snow White, which was cancelled yesterday as soon as the tragedy became known.
Scoil Treasa's principal Maurice Curtin said counselling would be made available for teachers and pupils affected. A note sent home with pupils said staff and students were "devastated".
Andrew, who would have been seven next month, was described by neighbours as "very quiet". He was a daily visitor to a friend's house at the end of the road, where he played but he had not visited there since Friday, which was "unusual", a neighbour said. He was in first class at Scoil Carmel, a sister school to Scoil Treasa, for the lower age-groups.
Gardaí will interview Mr Keegan in coming days in an effort to gain any insights into his wife's mindset.
The investigation is being run from Tallaght Garda station and is backed by officers from the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, the force's serious crimes squad.