A family of five found dead in their countryside home in the Irish midlands were most likely victims of a murder-suicide, investigators believe.
The bodies of a father, aged his 40s, his wife, aged in her 30s, and their three sons - aged 13, 11 and six - were discovered at the house in Oakdene Downs in the townland of Barconey, near Ballyjamesduff, in Co Cavan.
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."
Mr O'Driscoll described the case as very sensitive.
Picture: Philip Fitzpatrick/PA Wire
Two of the bodies were found in a downstairs room while three others were discovered upstairs in bedrooms.
Investigating gardai have found no evidence that a firearm was used.
A technical examination being carried out at the property - which has been sealed off as a crime scene - and follow up post mortem examinations are expected to give a more definitive answer as to the cause of the deaths.
A number of objects found in the house are also being subjected to "detailed technical examination".
The family had been mixing with the local community on Sunday and did not raise any suspicions as to what would later happen, Mr O'Driscoll told reporters.
"Nothing had happened prior to this grim discovery this morning that gave rise to anyone - including An Garda Siochana - having any suspicion that anything was untoward and this family were engaged with the community and seen yesterday," he said.
"None of the activity and interaction with other people gave rise to any suspicion as to what was to happen."
The alarm was raised at around 10:45am on Monday after someone, thought to be a relative, called to the house but got no answer.
Two officers dispatched to the scene from Monaghan Garda station gained entry to the house and made the grim discovery.
Investigators are continuing to talk to neighbours and the extended family of the victims to piece together clues as to what happened.
Image from Google maps.
Locals said the father was believed to be from Co Kilkenny originally and was a deputy principal at a national school in Co Cavan.
The wife was believed to be from Co Cavan.
The family were involved with the local Gaelic Games Association (GAA) club.
Paddy Smith, a local councillor, said the deaths have been very distressing to all who knew the family in the tight-knit community.
"This has come as complete and utter shock to everybody in the area and everybody who knew the family because they were a very steady, hard working family," he said.
"It is a complete shock, out of the dark, people are just unable to grasp or comprehend what has happened."
Mr Smith added: "They are a very hard working and tight knit community, people just don't know what to say, they are shell shocked at this terrible tragedy."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article