Murder investigation into pensioner’s death
Sister speaks of her utter heartbreak after Rosie (78) is found dead in her home
GARDAÍ have confirmed that a murder investigation is under way into the death of pensioner Rose Hanrahan whose body was discovered in her Limerick home.
A sister of the 78-year-old pensioner fought back tears yesterday as she revealed they were to spend Christmas Day together in the house where her beloved sibling’s body was discovered.
Helen Carmody said she was “in a daze” since her older sister was found dead by family last Friday.
“All I want is to see her,” Ms Carmody said, clutching a photograph of Rosie, at her home in Kileely.
Gardai are treating the discovery of Ms Hanrahan’s body as a murder, but they have not released any specific details relating to their investigation.
Ms Carmody said she had faith gardai would find the right answers as to who was responsible for her sister’s death.
CCTV footage from security cameras near the house, at New Road, Thomondgate, were being harvested all day by gardai and house-to-house inquiries in the area continued.
“I’m putting my faith in the cameras,” Ms Carmody said.
She smiled: “We always spent Christmas together in her house because she’d cook dinner. I wouldn’t cook it right, she’d tell me.
“We would have spent Christmas together in her house. It’s only when [Christmas] happens that [this] will really sink in. It doesn’t feel real now.”
She said Rosie’s body was discovered by their other sister Evelyn and her husband Jimmy when they called Fri- day afternoon to return a handbag Rosie had left behind at their house.
“I’m in a daze. It’s like it has not really happened.”
She said: “[Rosie] was very careful going to bed. She’d lock all the doors.
“She’s going to be a big loss to all of us. I will miss her dreadfully. I can’t make sense of it really. She never did anything to anybody.
“She was very good to everybody and then this. Everybody liked her. Rosie was very good living. She loved the gardening and she went to bingo.”
Ms Carmody said Rosie felt secure in the home she had lived in for the past 40 years, and that she did not have an alarm installed.
“She was very independent. She wasn’t a nervous person, as long as everything was locked up and she went to bed, then she was grand.”
Fianna Fail TD Willie O’Dea, a family friend, visited the scene. “It’s just appalling tragedy. There are no words to describe it really,” he said.
The Thomodgate community were distraught at the loss of the popular pensioner.
Patricia Hayes, whose home adjoins Ms Hanrahan’s, said she was in deep shock: “Its hard to believe Rosie is gone. It’s devastating. I hope she’s resting in heaven with her husband Mike.”
Another neighbour, Julie Butler, wept in her sitting room as she tried to come to terms with the news: “What can I say about Rose. She was just a lovely lady. She helped out everyone.”