Gardaí: Dead woman’s head injuries not self inflicted

GARDAÍ yesterday said serious injuries on a woman found dead in Athlone last Friday were not self inflicted.

The senior officer leading the investigation said they were looking to track down people who were with Lily Scanlon at her Westmeath home in the 11 hours before her body was discovered.

Superintendent Aidan Glacken said: “The injuries on Lily’s body are unexplained. We believe they are not self inflicted.”

Ms Scanlon, aged in her late 40s and a mother of three children, was discovered with serious head injuries by gardaí at her home in Valley Court in the town at 10am on Friday. Supt Glacken said a number of people had been socialising in her house the previous night.

“So far we know she was alive at approximately 11pm the night before. She was in her house with some other persons, who we know the identity of.

“We have spoken to a number of witnesses. We know there was another person in the house with Lily.”

Supt Glacken added: “We are trying to fill in the space between 11pm and 10am the following morning. There may have been other persons in that house and that is the focus on the enquiry at the moment.”

He said a postmortem was carried out on Friday evening by Dr Marie Cassidy, the state pathologist.

“As this stage we are still treating the death of Lily as suspicious and I have a full scale investigation under way and an incident room has been set up.”

He said he had all the resources he required, including personnel and technical and forensic resources.

The house is just off the Dublin Road and almost a mile from Athlone town centre.

Ms Scanlon’s uncle, Athlone town councillor Austin Berry said at the weekend that his niece had been found face down in a pool of blood and had serious head injuries.

He described her as a “very kind person”.

“If someone was homeless or in trouble, she’d let them into her house,” he said.

Ms Scanlon was separated from her husband many years previously and they had three grown up children.