THE STEPFATHER of one of the young women killed in the quadruple murder in Newcastle West has spoken of her family’s grief and how the attack has changed “everything forever”.
Sarah Hines (25) and her two children – three-year-old Reece and five-month-old baby Amy – were stabbed to death along with their mother’s friend Alicia Brough (20) in an attack at a house in the Hazelgrove estate in Newcastle West in Co Limerick.
Yesterday, as gardaí continued to piece together events leading up to the murders, the bereaved families were still unclear as to what happened inside the house.
“We don’t know what’s true. We just know it’s all changed forever . . . It’s going to take a long time to sink in, it’s just unbelievable,” said Peter Rolfe, Sarah Hines’s stepfather.
Mr Rolfe and Sarah’s mother, Abina Hines, were due to formally identify her body and the bodies of her two young children yesterday afternoon after they were finally removed from the scene following the arrival of State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy.
Mr Rolfe said they last spoke to Sarah on Friday night when they called in to visit her at her new home.
“She was fantastic, so full of life. She wasn’t the sort who would sit in front of the television or sit indoors. She loved being out and doing things. She was up for life. She didn’t have a bad bone in her body, she was brilliant.”
A single mother, Sarah had recently ended a relationship with the father of five-month-old Amy, but she remained in contact with her former partner for the sake of their child, Mr Rolfe said. Her ex-boyfriend was not the father of three-year-old Reece but the little boy often referred to him as “daddy” when the couple were still together, he added.
Sarah only moved into the rented house in Hazelgrove estate a number of weeks ago and was delighted that she had a room for each of her children, her stepfather said.
“She was a brilliant mum, she doted on them,” he recalled.
“Amy was only five months but when you looked at Amy she recognised you and there was this smile . . . You could write a book about Reece, he was brilliant . . . From the second he got up he was open to anything,” he said.
According to Mr Rolfe, Sarah and Alicia Brough, who was also stabbed to death, became friends in recent weeks and had “really clicked” at Alicia’s 21st birthday party.
Parents picking up their children from Gaelscoil Ó Doghair spoke of the continuing shock in the community.
Acting principal of the school Elaine Gleeson, who is from Newcastle West, said it was the worst tragedy in living memory in the area.
“There’s an air of doom and gloom. Teachers are on the verge of tears all day. A lot of our teachers here would have young kids of their own,” she said.
“To imagine that anyone could do that . . . the horror of doing that to those babies.”
She said that when word first came through nobody knew what they were dealing with. “When we found out the children were just going home there was panic,” she said, adding that children were kept in the school until their parents were contacted to come and pick them up.
TD for Limerick West and Fine Gael spokesman on mental health Dan Neville offered his sympathy to the affected families and those living on the estate, which he described as a mature estate where there had never been any trouble.
Mr Neville said neighbours had described Ms Hines and her family as “very quiet, decent people” who were beginning to settle into the area.
The tragedy had had a “ripple effect” which was being felt throughout Limerick and Cork and indeed the country as a whole.
Meanwhile, Jack Roche, a former Cork county councillor from Rockchapel, where Ms Brough, originally from England, moved with her family a number of years back, said there was “a great sense of shock and sadness” at the young woman’s death.
Newcastle West parish priest Fr Frank Duhig, who visited the scene of the tragedy yesterday, said the community was “numb and bewildered” by the tragedy.
He said the local clergy had been talking to local primary school principals and teachers, adding that his thoughts were with those in outlying parishes who had been affected by the tragedy as well as the parents of young children.