Family faces funeral for ‘home bird’ Nicola

Only 11 days ago, Andrew Furlong spoke to his daughter Nicola, who was in daily contact with her family from her temporary base in Japan, when she joked about how her name might be in the newspapers.

Just over 24 hours later, a call by gardaí to the family home in Curracloe, Co Wexford, brought the message that every parent fears as Andrew and his wife Angie were informed that Nicola had been found dead in suspicious circumstances in a hotel room in Tokyo.

Ever since, this ordinary family has found itself at the centre of a media story which has garnered headlines around the world, in the process compounding the scale of the tragedy which has befallen the Furlongs.

Nicola, 21, a student of business and languages at Dublin City University, moved to Japan in September as part of a student exchange programme.

Andrew described this week how his daughter was a “home bird” who was reluctant to study abroad, only doing so because it was part of her degree course, and was looking forward to coming home to Curracloe at the end of July.

He last spoke to her on the day before she died, when she talked excitedly about her trip to Tokyo with a friend to see a concert by popular US rap artist Nicki Minaj, and her hopes of getting to meet the singer at anafter-show party.

Nicola had laughed with her father about how she might end up in the papers by getting her photo with Minaj.

Little were Nicola or her family to know that the trip to Tokyo from her base in Takasaki, around 100km from the Japanese capital, was to have fatal consequences.

A US dancer, James ‘King Tight’ Blackston and his American friend, a 19-year-old keyboard player who cannot be named for legal reasons, have been charged with a sexual assault on Nicola’s friend, which is alleged to have taken place in a taxi. They are also facing questioning about Nicola’s death.

Tokyo police are investigating the possibility that the drinks belonging to the two young Irish women were spiked before they were sexually assaulted.

Nicola’s friend, who has been allowed to return to Ireland, has informed Japanese investigators that she cannot recall details of how they met the two Americans after the concert, before going to the men’s hotel.

As the Furlong family prepares to bury the beloved daughter and sister “who would light up a room”, after requiem Mass in her home parish tomorrow, the details of how Nicola met her premature death remain a mystery, which is further adding to their grief.

Nicola’s father, who has said he had been following the murder trial of Michaela McAreavey in Mauritius — another high-profile case of an Irishwoman killed abroad — knows he may now face a parallel ordeal at some point in the future.