Relatives comfort mother of dead Chada brothers

Relatives were last night trying to comfort Kathleen Chada, the devastated mother of Eoghan, 10, and Ruairi, 5, whose bodies were discovered just hours after gardaí issued a major alert in a bid to establish their whereabouts.

Mrs Chada, originally named Kathleen Murphy, who lived in Ballinkillen outside Bagenalstown in Co Carlow with her husband, Sanjeev, and their two sons, reported the three missing at about 1.30am yesterday.

Mr Chada, 43, who is originally from India but has been living in Ireland for many years, left the family’s home at about 6.30pm and said he was taking the two boys for a bowling trip to the Dome Bowling Centre in Carlow town.

However, they never arrived at the bowling alley and concern for the boys’ safety grew in the subsequent hours.

Taking the boys was said by gardaí to be “completely out of character” for Mr Chada.

It is understood he worked in the financial sector until recently but was lately out of work. Well known in the Ballinkillen and Bagenalstown areas, he was involved in the community council. Kathleen works as a nurse and is from Ballinkillen. Her parents, Willie and Patsy Murphy, live nearby.

The family was said to be “devastated” last night. “She’s in bits,” said a family acquaintance who was talking to Kathleen Chada following the discovery of her sons’ bodies.

He said the boys were “the most beautiful children” who were very popular with their school friends and everyone in the community.

Both Eoghan and Ruairi attended Ballinkillen National School and Ruairi had just completed his junior infants year. “This is just very, very sad, full stop,” said the acquaintance.

Both boys involved in sport in the area, and the local GAA club flew its flag at half-mast.

Parish priest of Bagenalstown, Fr Declan Foley, was with Kathleen and her extended family when she received word from gardaí about the boys’ deaths. “It was devastating. I can’t describe the emotion and the atmosphere in the house. It was like as if an earthquake had hit the house,” he said last night. “Everybody was just so broken-hearted and in a state of extreme shock. But her [Kathleen’s] parents were there and her extended family, so she wasn’t on her own.”

Everybody was “at a loss” to explain the reasoning behind Mr Chada’s actions in taking the boys on Sunday evening and not returning with them, Fr Foley said.

Kathleen will have the support of the entire community, he said, but will remain devastated by the double tragedy. “The tragic event of losing your only two boys and the impact of that in itself — you’d wonder is it ever something you could deal with,” said Fr Foley. “It’s something that takes a part of your heart away.”

The family was described as “salt of the earth” and the Murphys are regarded locally as “pillars of the community in Ballinkillen,” about 6km from Bagenalstown.

Kathleen’s mother is the sacristan at the local St Laserian’s Church, while the older brother was an altar-server. The family live close to the primary school where the two boys were pupils. Kathleen and Sanjeev built a house on the edge of her family’s farm some years ago.

Their home is near the scene of a double tragedy last year, when local farmer Michael Jordan, 51, shot his brother-in-law George Rothwell, 70, dead, before killing himself with a shotgun.

Gardaí said taking the boys was “certainly out of character” for Mr Chada and led to them having “huge concerns” about their safety before the bodies were found at the car crash site in Co Mayo yesterday afternoon.

“I know the mother and father [Patsy and Willie Murphy] very well and they’re lovely people. They don’t deserve this,” local councillor Denis Foley said last night. “But it’s a terrible thing for the poor children. Innocent children who trust everybody and to find themselves in that situation.”