Arrangements were being made today for the bodies of two best friends stabbed to death in Turkey to be brought home.
Marion Elizabeth Graham and Kathy Dinsmore - both aged 53, from Newry, Co Down and described as inseparable - were found murdered in woods 75 miles north of Kusadasi.
Sources have said the killings happened after Ms Graham refused a waiter’s proposal to marry her 15-year-old daughter, Shannon.
The two women suffered multiple stab wounds, including having their throats cut, and their bodies were found in a forest near a graveyard to the east of the port city of Izmir.
Raymond McGuinness, Ms Graham’s ex-partner and the father of Shannon, has arrived in Turkey along with Ms Graham’s son David.
The women’s bodies have been formally identified, allowing Irish officials to begin making arrangements to have them repatriated.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs said repatriation depends on flight availability. She said the bodies will be signed off and released as they have now been identified.
The family is being assisted by Irish diplomat Fiona Nic Dhonnacha, the deputy head of mission in Ankara who has travelled to Izmir to support Shannon.
Mr McGuinness said he hoped a flight back to Ireland could be arranged by the middle of the week.
“We’ve identified the bodies and my main concern now is my daughter,” Mr McGuinness said.
“We’re going to arrange the flight home as soon as possible.” It is understood a 17-year-old Turkish waiter, known to the family as Alex, confessed to the killings after concocting a story the women had been kidnapped.
It is believed the teenager has been quizzed by a prosecutor and remains in custody. It is understood the waiter’s father and a taxi driver were also arrested, but have been released.
It is not clear if and when the 17-year-old will be brought before a court.
It is believed the waiter had asked Ms Graham for her daughter’s hand in marriage but was refused.
The women travelled with him out of Kusadasi on Thursday after Shannon went on a boat trip.
Mr McGuinness said he had never been fully in favour of the relationship since the two teens began going out last summer.
“There was always something that was not quite right,” he said.
The alarm was raised on Thursday when the waiter, said to have been in a distressed state, arrived for work in a Kusadasi restaurant.
He claimed he had suffered a cut to his hand trying to fight off kidnappers who had bundled the two women into a van. They had not been reported missing from their extended holiday at this stage.
Mr McGuinness said: “He told Shannon that he had tried to stop the kidnappers and he had a cut on his hand and that’s how he suffered it.” It is understood Alex had been involved in a separate row with Shannon’s mother last week.
The two women travelled on Irish passports.
Ms Dinsmore had been an employee of Newry and Mourne District Council. She also worked in a local cab firm up until last Christmas. Her mother died four weeks ago.
The two women had been regular visitors to Kusadasi for years, staying in an apartment owned by Mr McGuinness.
In a statement, members of the Dinsmore family said they were left “devastated” by their relative’s death.