DAD KILLS WIFE AND HIS 3 SONS IN FAMILY BLOODBATH HORROR
Then stabs himself to death
A FATHER suspected of murdering his wife and three young sons pinned a note to the back door warning neighbours against entering the house before taking his own life.
The bodies of primary school deputy principal Alan Hawe, aged in his 40s, and his schoolteacher wife Clodagh, aged in her 30s, and their three sons were discovered at the house near Ballyjamesduff, in Co Cavan, Ireland.
Police are believed to be probing the theory that Mr Hawe stabbed his wife to death before he killed his three sons and then turned the knife on himself.
It is believed the husband and wife were found downstairs at the house in Barconey, while the boys – Liam, 13, Niall, 11, and Ryan, six – were upstairs in their bedrooms.
Garda assistant commissioner John O’Driscoll said they are not looking for anyone else in connection with the deaths.
“We believe all the answers are within that house, so therefore the most likely scenario is that one person in that house may have caused the death of the others,” he said.
“All the circumstances will be explored, but as it stands at the moment that is the position.”
Grim
Mr Hawe was deputy principal at nearby Castlerahan National School, which was due to start back after the summer break.
Niall and Ryan were both pupils at the school and Liam was a past pupil.
Mrs Hawe taught at Oristown National School in Co Meath. Locals said the family were out and about in the close-knit community on Sunday and gave no indication that anything was wrong before the alarm was raised the following day.
Mr O’Driscoll said: “Nothing had happened prior to this grim discovery that gave rise to anyone – including An Garda Siochana – having any suspicion that anything was untoward.”
It is believed that a number of objects found in the house are being subjected to “detailed technical examination”.