Elderly woman’s death treated as suspicious

POLICE in the North confirmed they are treating the death of a pensioner whose body was found in her home on Christmas morning as suspicious.

The woman, named locally as Maire Rankin, 81, was found dead in her terraced house at lower Dublin Road in Newry, Co Down, yesterday.

Family members became concerned when she failed to answer her door or telephone calls and her body was discovered at 10.15am. She lived on her own and it is understood she had been planning to spend Christmas Day with a relative.