Body left rotting as brother and sister continued to live in house

THE body of an elderly woman discovered in a farmhouse may have been left decomposing in a bedroom for up to a year, it emerged last night.

As the skeletal remains of 70-year-old Agnes Lyons were removed from the bungalow, gardaí were trying to find out why her sister Mary Ellen, 65, and brother Michael, 74, continued to live in the house but failed to report her death.

Mary Ellen Lyons was taken to hospital yesterday suffering from malnutrition and a leg injury. Michael Lyons is being cared for by relatives.