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.

Witnesses who were in the farmhouse, outside the village of Aughamore in Co Mayo, said they were shocked by what they found.

The skeletal body of Ms Lyons was lying in a room described as “like something out of a horror film”.

Papers, discarded food and milk cartons were piled high in the room, while the bed itself, which was covered in worms, was in a state of advanced decay.

Gardaí launched an investigation after being tipped off by a doctor who had called to the house to treat Mary Ellen Lyons’s injury. While treating the injury, the doctor asked after Agnes and was directed towards the bedroom.

A post mortem is to be carried out today on the body to find out how she died, but gardaí do not suspect foul play.

The body had been lying in the bed for many months, but one source close to the investigation said the state of decomposition suggests she was definitely dead for a year and possibly up to three.

Gardaí locally described the three siblings as reclusive, although many relatives still live in the area and the land on which the bungalow sits is being farmed by family members.

Relatives contacted yesterday refused to talk about the situation.

Paul Rodgers, who runs the local post office, said the reaction was not so much one of horror or shock. “It’s more one of compassion, understanding and sympathy. They have not been well and have been lying low,” he said.

The three had not come to the attention of the Western Health Board, but a spokeswoman said that if assistance was requested then the board will help fully.

Agnes and Mary Ellen Lyons, who grew up in the area, had lived in England for some time before returning home a number of years ago.

The dead woman had been, according to those who knew her, “vibrant and energetic” in her younger years. But in recent years all three had become reclusive. The two sisters had not been seen in either Aughamore or Ballyhaunis in three years.

Mary Ellen was removed to Mayo General Hospital in Castlebar and was yesterday transferred to University College Hospital in Galway. She is said to be suffering from malnutrition.