A YOUNG woman in her late teens has been arrested as part of the investigation into the deaths of Sharon Whelan and her two children whose bodies were found after a house fire in Co Kilkenny on Christmas Day.
She is the second person arrested during the investigation. A young man had already been arrested at his home and was still being questioned last night.
The woman was arrested yesterday morning at a house in the Windgap area about 27km from Kilkenny town. She remained in custody at Kilkenny Garda station last night.
The man is being held under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act at Kilkenny Garda station and can be questioned for up to 24 hours while the woman is being detained under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act.
Sharon Whelan (30) and her daughters Zsarah (7) and Nadia (2) were found dead after smoke was seen coming from their rented home at Roscon on Christmas Day.
The old house is located about two miles from the sleepy village of Windgap in a remote rural setting.
The fire was initially thought to have started accidentally, but after weeks of speculation gardaí on Thursday upgraded their investigation to a murder inquiry.
The arrests come just days after investigating gardaí met the State Pathologist, Dr Marie Cassidy.
Gardaí have also received DNA and toxicology results in recent days.
Both people being questioned know each other and it is believed that the man knew Ms Whelan. According to a Garda source, the male in question has no previous convictions and was not known to gardaí prior to the fire.
The two children died as a result of smoke inhalation but postmortem results suggest that Ms Whelan was already dead by the time the fire destroyed her remote home on the Kilkenny-Tipperary border.
The postmortems have confirmed that Sharon Whelan died a number of hours before her children.
There was no smoke in the lungs of the young mother but her two daughters died from smoke inhalation a short time before the emergency services arrived.
Paramedics had fought desperately to resuscitate the two girls but it was too late to save them.
The postmortem on Ms Whelan also revealed a ligature mark to her neck. The postmortem findings suggest that she was strangled or choked by an item and not by a person’s bare hands. The instrument used in the killing has not been recovered by gardaí and the scene remains cordoned off and preserved as searches and examinations continue.
Gardaí are also trying to establish the cause of the fire.
An Aga stove was sent to Garda headquarters in Dublin for examination but examinations on the stove revealed nothing and officers remain unsure of the cause of the fire.
The scene has remained cordoned off since Christmas morning.
Hundreds of mourners attended the funerals which were held on New Year’s Day.
Gardaí in Kilkenny have renewed their appeal for information about the killings.