A shocking crime

IT was one of the most shocking murders ever in the West of Ireland,.

An 83- year- old shopkeeper, Eddie Fitzmaurice, who lived alone was brutally set upon over the Bank Holiday week- end of May 1998. He was tied up and gagged and left to die over a five day period. Nineteen years on it remains a mystery over who committed the murder despite numerous appeals, the most recent to mark the 19th anniversary of Eddie’s death this week. There have been several arrests but Gardaí have been unable to make the vital breakthrough. Details of the Garda probe into the death of the widower were revealed in the fifth report issued by the Morris Tribunal.

The report outlined how on May 6th 1998, the body of Mr. Fitzmaurice was found in an upstairs room of his house at Bellaghy.

“As the Tribunal understands it, from the testimony of Detective Superintendent John O’Mahony, the context of this suspicious death was to leave the Gardai with very few clues as to the perpetrator or perpetrators of the crime that led to his death.

“The murder scene appears to have yielded very little in terms of clues as to identity. If there were fingerprints, then the identification of a definite suspect may at some stage yield a match,” said Mr. Justice Morris. The report noted that there were no signs of a break- in to the deceased’s house.

When Mr Fitzmaurice was found his hands and feet were tied. The post mortem showed he had suffered bruising to his face and that his larynx had been fractured.

“This possibly indicates an attempt at either strangulation or at control through gripping him around the neck. His eventual death was due to hypothermia. This, of course, occurred due to the fact that he was tied up, disabled, and therefore unable to seek aid or food or water,” said Mr Justice Morris.

There were no eyewitnesses to the event. The deceased was last sighted on Friday, May 1st in his shop when two women came in and bought some items of clothing.

Forensics also yielded very little in forensic examination.

“Every avenue, I suppose, was open to us and we have to look at every avenue of inquiry. We looked at suspects from all over the country. A number of suspects were nominated either through information or through intelligence.

“We also looked at previous similar type crimes that were committed both in this jurisdiction and indeed in Northern Ireland and we looked at suspects in relation to those crimes,” said Det Supt O’Mahony.

He revealed there were sixty- seven groups of suspects nominated as of the 19th of May 1998 for the crime.

“We had looked at people who had previously been convicted or charged, with similar type crimes.” He said this figure had risen to over 200 suspects.