Mother drowns her two children and kills herself

A MOTHER who drowned her two daughters, then killed herself, was separated and involved in a custody battle over the girls.

The bodies of Sharon Grace and her two daughters were discovered by three fishermen in shallow water at Kaats Strand in Wexford Town yesterday morning.

Gardaí are investigating the circumstances of the deaths but do not believe anyone else was involved in the tragedy.

They do not believe the deaths were the result of an accident.

Post mortems will be carried out on the bodies today but gardaí believe the 26-year-old mother and her two girls, four-year-old Michaela and Abby, aged three, drowned close to the site where the bodies were found.

The three are believed to have taken a taxi from their home in Barntown around 2am yesterday.

They were dropped off in the town.

The three fishermen were walking along the strand at 10.30am yesterday when they saw the bodies in shallow water just beyond the harbour in the estuary of the River Slaney.

Ms Grace, a member of the Reddy family from Wexford town, had a third child, a 10-year-old daughter from a previous relationship. She was being cared for by relatives last night.

The young mother was married for five years. However, the pair were separated and had been involved in a battle for custody of the two younger children. Local people have been left stunned by the deaths.

The Grace family is well known in the Barntown area and two members have stood in elections in recent years.

The post mortems on the three are expected to conclude that the mother and her children all drowned. Superintendent Pat Delaney, who is leading the investigation, said: “We are investigating the circumstances, but do not feel it was an accident.”

They are trying to trace the movements of Ms Grace and the children from when the three left their home in Barntown around 2am.

It is believed they may have got a taxi into town as she did not drive.

House-to-house inquiries were carried out yesterday as gardaí attempt to piece together what happened after they were dropped off by the taxi driver.

It is believed, however, that Ms Grace took her two children directly to the Strand, where she then killed them before taking her own life.

The circumstances of the deaths are similar to a number of previous cases, where a parent has killed their children.

In a two-year period to the end of 2001, 19 children died at the hands of their parent or a close relative.

Six of them drowned in the sea.