Village reeling as second local family dies together one year on

THE Wexford village of Clonroche came to a standstill this weekend as for the second time in 12 months a local family died by murder-suicide.

Dermot Flood, 41, his wife Lorraine, 38, and their children Mark, 6, and Julie, 5, were all found dead in the family home in Clonroche on Saturday.

A huge fire broke out in the downstairs of the two-storey house at 5.30am.

It destroyed half the house and caused the roof to collapse by the time fire crews led by chief officer Marie Melia arrived.

Investigation teams have not ruled out the use of a highly flammable liquid to start the fire but tests were stalled last night by the discovery of high levels of cancer-causing asbestos.

Further tests on the level of asbestos will be carried out today to determine how the scene can be examined and how postmortems on the four bodies can proceed.

When the alarm was raised on Saturday, neighbour John Kehoe smashed the window of the house and tried to get Lorraine out but she did not move.

“I kept saying Lorraine get out, get out but she didn’t move. I left her to try look for the kids but I was beaten back by the smoke,” he said.

When fire crews quenched the blaze Lorraine was found in her bedroom upstairs. She had been shot before the fire broke out.

Dermot was also shot and was found in a downstairs playroom. Both children were in upstairs bedrooms and were badly burnt.

On Saturday morning the community of Clonroche was unaware the gardaí were treating the deaths as suspicious and assumed the Flood family died in a house fire.

However, an afternoon news bulletin on local radio informed people both Dermot and Lorraine had been shot.

A gun, licensed to the wider Flood family, was recovered at the scene and has been taken to a laboratory to be examined.

Specialist investigators from the Garda Technical Bureau arrived early on Saturday morning along with Dr Declan Gilsenan from the state pathologist’s office.

At 7pm on Saturday the bodies were driven to the Dublin city morgue in Marino.

Contrary to some reports, the gardaí said they could not confirm whether the couple’s two children perished in the fire or were killed before it broke out.

Their bodies showed no signs of external injuries besides being burned.

The postmortem will reveal if they had inhaled smoke prior to their death, this will tell if they were alive when the fire started.

However, last night this postmortem was suspended because of the discovery of asbestos.

Gardaí said at this stage they are not looking for anybody in relation to the deaths of the Flood family but are keeping an open mind.

At a press briefing, Superintendent Kevin Donohoe warned people against jumping to conclusions.

However, last night the small village of Clonroche had accepted a family widely liked and respected was the latest to die by murder-suicide a year and a week after another family from the parish suffered the same fate.