‘Rosie was an elderly widow ...don’t shield her killers’
A FORMER detective has warned that anyone found to be keeping information from gardaí investigating the murder a 78-year-old Limerick widow face possible prosecution in the criminal courts.
The body of Rosie Hanrahan was discovered in her home, where she had lived for 40 years, by her sister Evelyn last Friday, a family source confirmed.
Gardaí did not comment on reports that Ms Hanrahan had been tied up and strangled during a break-in at her bungalow, at New Road, Thomondgate.
The killing has sent shockwaves through the close-knit workingclass area, and has appalled senior gardaí involved in the murder probe. Superintendent Derek Smart, who is leading the investigation, told a press briefing the murder was ‘hard to take in’.
Meanwhile, former detective Seán Lynch, who is Mayor of the Metropolitan District of Limerick, issued this warning to anyone who may be protecting the killer or killers: ‘Don’t shield them. There are repercussions there for people who are shielding [criminals], or who had information that would [have] led to early arrests or the solving of this case.’
Mayor Lynch said the murder was ‘a heinous crime, committed by a very evil person or persons’.
‘It’s absolutely shocking, and there are no words to describe the disappointment and the disgust that I feel myself – and I’m sure I’m speaking for everybody in Limerick – that a 78-year-old woman should come to her end in this fashion,’ he said.
No arrests have yet been made in the murder case. The widow’s home remained sealed off by forensic officers at the weekend.
Ms Hanrahan, who did not have any children, is survived by her four sisters Helen, Evelyn, Chrissie and Kathleen. She had cared for her late husband Michael who died nearly five years ago after suffering from a long-term illness.
‘Committed by a very evil person’