Brothers ‘looked asleep’ in boot of car
It emerged yesterday that Mr Chada crashed his car in excess of 130km/h into a stone wall outside Westport, Co Mayo.
However, the airbag prevented his attempted suicide, and he escaped with relatively minor physical injuries.
Detectives were waiting for medical permission last night to question him on suspicion of murdering his children.
Eoghan, aged 10, and Ruairi, aged five, both were asphyxiated. Autopsies on the two children were completed last night but gardaí have not released the results, citing operational reasons.
Given Eoghan’s age, gardaí said he might have been able to put up a struggle. Blood tests are being conducted to see whether or not the boys were drugged beforehand.
The boy’s mother, Kathleen, continued to be comforted yesterday by family and friends at her home in Ballinkillen, Co Carlow.
Gardaí said Mr Chada had no history of mental illness and there were no signs of domestic problems. Sources did say he was under stress as a result of being suspected of an alleged embezzlement of around €50,000 from a local community organisation.
“This might have been bearing down on him, but there was nothing else in relation to family problems and he didn’t suffer any mental issues,” said one source.
The alleged fraud had only recently emerged, the Garda investigation was at an initial stage, and Mr Chada was yet to be questioned.
The discovery of the car at Rosbeg, 3km outside Westport, was made at 3.25pm on Monday, when local gardaí responded to a car accident.
Gardaí were deeply affected when they looked into the boot. Describing the scene as “horrific”, one source said the boys “were like they were asleep” and were “curled up” beside each other.
The discovery came just 90 minutes after gardaí launched a nationwide appeal for sightings of Mr Chada’s green car.
Mrs Chada reported them missing at 1.30am on Monday. Gardaí exhausted internal measures to locate them before issuing a Child Rescue Ireland alert, the first-ever such appeal.
Mr Chada took the boys from their home at 6.30pm on Sunday and told Kathleen he was bringing them bowling to the Dome Centre in Carlow town.
A spokesman for the centre told the Irish Examiner they were not sure if he had been there or not, and they had not been asked by gardaí to examine CCTV. He said staff had seen Mr Chada bowling with the children there before.
Garda sources believe Mr Chada used the bowling trip as a “ruse” so he could make his getaway, indicating he planned his actions.
Gardaí are appealing to staff at petrol stations, shops, and B&Bs, as well as motorists, who may have seen the car or the Chada family to contact them.
