Amanda’s son, 5, climbed into bed with her thinking she was asleep..
teenager found his mother’s body Boy heard ‘bang’ in amanda’s room
THE five-year-old son of a strangled mother climbed into her bed thinking she was asleep, a devastated neighbour revealed yesterday.
Amanda Carroll, 33, had died hours earlier after being savagely attacked in her own home.
The horrific murder has shocked residents at the Homestead Court apartment complex in Cabra, North Dublin, where the young family had lived for the past 11 years.
Her body was found at 2.30pm on Sunday and a man arrested in connection with her death was still in custody last night.
Neighbour Declan O’farrell told the Irish Mirror: “I know her two kids Dennis, 16, and five-year-old Cameron.
“I think Dennis actually found her. Then the youngest lad, he got in the bed beside her thinking she was asleep.”
Dennis got up for a football match on Sunday morning unaware of the horror that had unfolded during the night. Mr O’farrell added: “Dennis just looked in on her and said, ‘Ma I’m going to my match’ and his girlfriend was watching the little fella.
“It was only when he came home he went in to check on her and she was [dead].
“He had heard a bang in his ma’s room [in the early hours of Sunday] and that woke him up but he kind of just blew it off and went back asleep.”
Hours after the horrific beating and with the killer on the run, Amanda’s body was discovered by Dennis.
Mr O’farrell said: “The eldest only found her at 2.30pm. I think when the blood stops going to the heart it brings out the bruises more and they found bruises around her neck. They say she was strangled.”
A 35-year-old man was arrested on Sunday afternoon and he was still in custody last night at Mountjoy Garda station.
A Garda spokesman said: “The postmortem has been completed and the results have been passed to the investigation team.”
The suspect asked for a rest period on Sunday night which meant questioning was stopped for eight hours. Gardai had until 1am this morning to either charge or release him. There are no other suspects in the case.
Mr O’farrell said he will remember Amanda, who studied child development and childcare at Marino College, as a “gorgeous” girl.
He added: “She was a great person. She wouldn’t walk by you without saying hello or stop and have a chat with you.
She didn’t deserve that. I know you say no one deserves that, but she didn’t deserve that.
“She hadn’t got a stable partner and she was looking after two kids.
“Her mam died there last year or the year before. Her father is there and her sisters. They took the youngest lad yesterday.
“It’s the younger lad, he just won’t understand where his mam is.
“The smaller one, he was crying all day for his ma yesterday.”
Amanda’s death has sent shockwaves through the area.
Mr O’farrell added: “I was out when I got a phone call that she was dead and I couldn’t believe it. I had just seen her yesterday, well I keep thinking it was yesterday, but it was Saturday.
“Just talking, she was happy, smiling as normal. Nothing wrong with her, just a day in the life of Amanda I suppose.
“We were the first residents there and Amanda was one of the first residents.
“They moved most of them out of O’devaney Gardens.”
Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou Mcdonald, who lives in Cabra, told the Irish Mirror the community has been left numbed by the shocking death.
She added: “People are completely devastated, utterly devastated, for her two sons, for her family. I mean it’s unthinkable. It’s your worst nightmare and there is a sense of almost disbelief.
“I’d say the community are kind of numb.
“People are shocked. They are deeply, deeply saddened.
“Today is just about grief for Amanda and total solidarity with her family who I cannot imagine the trauma that they must be in.
“I was out and about the constituency, out and around in my neighbourhood earlier and of course everyone is talking about it and every single one of us are utterly shocked and horrified.”
Margaret Martin, Director of Women’s Aid, said: “Today it was with a heavy heart that we added another name to our record of women who have died violently in this country.
“Amanda Carroll is the sixth woman this year whose life was taken so cruelly.
“Our hearts are with everyone who knew and loved Amanda and particularly her two children.
“Every life lost is an outrage, an absolutely tragic loss of life and potential.
“Women should be safe in their homes and in their relationships.”
■ The Women’s Aid national helpline is available on 1800 341 900. The service is provided 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
People are completely devastated for her two sons and her family MARY LOU MCDONALD DUBLIN YESTERDAY