Gardaí are investigating the "unexplained circumstances" which led to the death of a 16- year-old girl whose body was found at her family home at Killure, Goresbridge, about 10 miles from Kilkenny city, yesterday.
The girl's mother was taken to St Luke's Hospital in Kilkenny where her condition is said to be "not life-threatening".
It is understood that her father and brother had been away from the family home overnight on Saturday and returned to the house yesterday where she was found dead in bed and the mother in a "collapsed state".
Supt Aiden Roche of Thomastown, who is leading the Garda investigation, said he had been alerted to the incident by ambulance control which had been contacted by a member of the family.
Supt Roche said the girl's name was not being released, at the family's request, until after the results of a full post-mortem.
State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy went to the scene yesterday afternoon with members of the Garda Technical Bureau to carry out a preliminary investigation.
Early indications are that there were no signs of a break-in at the house. The large, modern red-brick house is in its own grounds behind electronic gates on an unmarked narrow road in the townland of Killure, close to the N10 Kilkenny to Dublin road and the villages of Goresbridge, Gowran and Paulstown.
Outside the house, Fr Larry Malone, parish priest of Goresbridge and Paulstown, said he knew the family as the boy attended the local school.
It is understood that the family is not from the area and had moved there some years ago. A local couple said that they "didn't really know the people". Villagers in Goresbridge and Gowran said they were shocked by the news which they had heard on local radio.
Undertakers from Thomastown arrived at the house yesterday evening and said they had been asked to remove the body under Garda escort to Waterford Regional Hospital.