Married then MURDERED
Shortly after Mary married Colin, he killed her for a huge lifeinsurance payout…
When Mary Gough married Colin Whelan, their families thought they were the perfect match. But just six months later, on March 1 2001, Mary was dead, having supposedly fallen down the stairs at their home in Balbriggan, County Dublin. Whelan claimed he’d found her unconscious, but a post-mortem revealed she’d been strangled.
‘When the detectives came to tell me she’d been murdered I just went into shock,’ says Mary’s mum, Marie. ‘It was the worst thing that could have happened.’
Investigations revealed that in the months leading up to Mary’s death,
Whelan had been searching terms
including ‘choking’ and ‘strangulation’. He’d also taken out a joint lifeinsurance policy that entitled him to IR£400,000 if Mary died. Detectives soon pieced together that Whelan had planned to kill Mary for money, and that their wedding was all an act.
‘He never loved Mary whatsoever,’ says Marie.
‘He had no thought for anyone, only himself.’
Fled
Whelan was charged with Mary’s murder, but was released under strict bail conditions. However, six months before his trial was due to start, he faked his own death and fled to Spain. He was only tracked down following a tip-off from an Irish tourist who’d spotted him working in a bar in Mallorca. Whelan was extradited back to Ireland where he pleaded guilty in April 2005 and handed a life sentence. But Marie still can’t get over what he did to her daughter.
‘Mary would ring me every evening,’ she says. ‘When I think of it now she must have been trying to tell me something. It’s a cross I’m carrying for life.’