JOANNE KILLER’S SICK LIE TO GARDAI
Husband claimed 38-year-old had killed herself because of his affair
THE husband of Joanne Lee, who was found dead in a wardrobe, told gardaí days before that he feared she had committed suicide after discovering his extra-marital affair.
Joanne, 38, was strangled to death and her body found in an apartment near the Grand Canal in the south Dublin suburb of Ranelagh.
Her estranged husband, Keith Lee, walked into Store Street Garda station and reported her missing at 11.30pm on Tuesday night.
He told officers that his wife became aware a month previously that he’d had an affair and had self-harmed.
Gardaí later established that Mrs Lee had harmed herself a month previously.
She was found dead wrapped in sleeping bags and plastic bags in
a wardrobe in the Ranelagh flat.
One of the bags had been placed over her head, it is understood.
Gardaí officially upgraded the inquiry into her death to a murder investigation last night.
Keith Lee, 42, jumped from the thirdfloor flat’s balcony when gardaí raided the house.
He was still receiving treatment for his injuries at St James’s Hospital in Dublin last night.
He sustained injuries including two broken ankles, broken ribs, and a fractured arm when he jumped, sources have told the Mail.
He also has injuries to his arm as he attempted to slit his wrists with a Stanley blade, while writhing in agony on the ground, after he plunged 30 feet from the balcony.
Gardaí took the blade from him and stopped the bleeding.
It could be several days before Mr Lee is questioned as he is yet to be deemed medically fit to do so.
Before he was taken away from the scene on a stretcher, he admitted killing Joanne.
‘I had to kill her,’ he told gardaí as he was being taken into custody.
A senior garda source told the Mail: ‘He has broken down, he has admitted killing her.
‘It was a terrible scene for the officers to find the poor dead woman’s remains stuffed in a wardrobe. ‘It is a shocking case.’ It believed the couple had been estranged for the past months.
At a press briefing at the scene in Ranelagh yesterday Superintendent Gerry Delmar from Donnybrook Garda Station said that the last known sighting of Joanne, whose maiden name was Bell, was on February 5 at her family home in Garristown, Co. Meath.
Gardaí had put out a missing persons appeal on Wednesday, February 15.
The Irish Daily Mail has learned that the owners of the social housing apartment where Mrs Lee was found are away on holiday in Indonesia.
Sources say they passed on the keys to a friend – who in turn passed on the keys to Mr Lee, who has addresses at North Strand in Dublin’s inner city, as well as at Garristown in Co. Meath.
Mrs Lee was being mourned in her native Coolock and in her parent’s home in Meath, where her younger brother, Ger Bell, went to school.
Her devastated uncle, John Curry, spoke of the family’s suffering after the grim discovery was made. He wept at the scene and said: ‘The whole family is taken apart. The soul is taken out of us.
‘You just don’t know what came out of this or why this happened.’
Mr Curry said he heard about the killing while visiting Mrs Lee’s mother in Co. Meath.
‘All I can say is why, why, why, why? This is a beautiful girl, so young and so pretty, away from us all. Just devastated,’ he said. Joanne’s some angrily the Dozens Others Her sake sister, of and denounced of sought family her of both appealed Jennifer people husband’s families. yesterday, to him temper Bell, for online. consoled calm a family while Montesorri comments for northwest posted after news teacher a photo broke Dublin, in of Tyrellstown that Joanne yesterday her online, body in had Jennifer been found. had been appealing for information days, along with online her for brother the last Ger. two
Dozens of people posted online in a effort at comforting her.
Her friend, Mandy Greene, wrote: ‘Beautiful angel. May she rest in peace. So sad, thinking of u all at this horrendous time.’
Ger Bell also published the same photo of his sister online, and was being comforted by friends and family. His friend, Sandie Byrne, said that she had been following his online campaign to find Joanne. ‘My heart went out to you and your sister Jennifer. I’m so sorry that this is the conclusion and wanted to pass on my condolences.
‘I’ll be thinking of you all over the coming days and weeks.
Meanwhile, Mr Lee’s second last Facebook post before Joanne’s disappearance said: ‘I am an a**hole. So if you don’t want your feelings Joanne hurt, and don’t Keith talk first to me.’ met in May, 1999 and they were engaged in February, 1999. They had been extremely happy for the first few years of their marriage. As late as seven months ago, after a hiking trip together, Keith wrote: ‘Happiest day of my life with my beautiful soulmate, Joanne Lee.’ Their posts showed them together until four months ago. Residents of the house of flats where Mrs Lee’s body was found expressed their shock at what happened. Zvjezdan Milholic, a Croatian who lives in the house, said that Mr Lee had only moved in very recently. ‘I knew there was a new guy because I could hear his dog whining every day. The dog was crying, like he wanted to go outside. I saw him outside walking this black dog sometimes,’ he said. ‘It is all so shocking.
‘We knew nothing yesterday and we checked it online and could not believe this is happening here.’
Mr Milholic, who lives with his Romanian girlfriend, said that Mr Lee was living in the back apartment of the third floor, overlooking the rear garden.
Gardaí were still stopping residents from re-entering the building yesterday after paying for them to stay in the nearby Hilton hotel on Thursday night.
Mr Milholic and his girlfriend came back to the red-bricked house after checking out of the Hilton at 3pm.
A garda apologised and said that there was a delay in the arrival of a
Put out missing persons appeal
Extremely happy for first few years Joanne’s body had been removed
Garda technical team and that he couldn’t let them back into the building.
Mr Milholic was advised to call Donnybrook Garda Station and was told that they couldn’t re-enter, for at least several hours more.
Gardaí confirmed that Joanne’s body had already been removed from the building.
Another resident, from Czech Republic, also came back to the house.
He gave a garda his house keys and he agreed to pick up his laptop from his apartment and hand it to him.
One resident, from Mauritius, said there was a lot of confusion but that they were hoping to return to their own apartments late last night.
ali.bracken@dailymail.ie