Second arrest over Whelan deaths

A SECOND person was arrested yesterday in connection with the deaths of a mother and her two children on Christmas Day in Co Kilkenny.

A woman, who is in her late teens, was being held at Kilkenny Garda Station last night.

The previous night, gardaí arrested a man in his 20s, who remained in custody last night.

Sharon Whelan, 30, her seven-year-old daughter Zsara and two-year-old daughter Nadia were found dead on Christmas morning after a fire broke out at their rented farmhouse.

Both girls died as a result of smoke inhalation but postmortem examination results showed Ms Whelan was already dead by the time the fire destroyed her remote home on the Kil-kenny-Tipperary border.

The three bodies were pulled from the house at about 9am on Christmas Day when locals saw the property engulfed in flames.

DNA samples have been taken from several suspects and gardaí are hoping they can match one of these to DNA found on the body of Ms Whelan.

Toxicology results relating to the three victims are expected over the coming days, which will establish if any of the victims were drugged before they died.

A postmortem showed Ms Whelan had a ligature mark to her neck. The findings suggest that she was strangled or choked by an item, not manually.

Investigating officers are due to travel to Dublin to meet with the state pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy to discuss the findings.

Gardaí are also still trying to establish the cause of the fire.