Children the victim in 50% of murder suicides

More than half of all victims of murder-suicide were children killed by a parent, a study has found.

Some 46 people lost their lives between Jan 2001 and Jun 30 of this year, due to a phenomenon commonly known as murder-suicide — where an individual kills another and subsequently commits suicide, either immediately or within a short period of time.

The total includes 27 victims and 19 perpetrators.

A study of records from the State Pathologists’ Office found that there were 19 incidents of murder-suicide over a near 13-year period.

In 79% of cases, the perpetrator was male and in 21% of cases, the perpetrator was female, the research found.

Some 52% of victims were children, and a further 37% were adult women.

The study, entitled Dyadic Deaths in Ireland, which was carried out by a forensic student at Sligo Institute of Technology, Ciara Byrne, looked only at cases where the perpetrator died and did not consider cases where a perpetrator survived a suicide attempt.

It found in all nine incidents where children were killed, the perpetrator was a parent.

In five cases, the perpetrator was a father and in two of those cases he also killed his wife. In four cases the perpetrator was a mother.

Female perpetrators tended to only kill their children, the study found.

In all four cases where the perpetrator was female, the victims were her child or children whereas male perpetrators killed their female partners (33%), friends (20%), children (20%), whole families (13% — including partners and children), ex-partners (7%), and parents (7%).

Eighteen of the incidents occurred in rural Ireland and one in Dublin.

Overall, the main methods of murder were firearm deaths and asphyxia (suffocation and strangulation), the study found.

In 26% of cases, the perpetrator had alcohol present in their systems when discovered while in just two cases, the perpetrator had drugs in their system when found.

Some 26% of perpetrators had a psychiatric history.

Ms Byrne described the deaths as “very tragic”.

“The victims tended to be so young. There were a lot (of victims) between the ages of 0 and 14 and I found that quite sad,” said Ms Byrne, from Artane, Dublin. She hopes to study forensic toxicology after completing her degree.

Dr Michael Curtis, the deputy state pathologist, said it was a “fantastic” piece of work and added that it would be very interesting to compare the findings here with those in other jurisdictions to see if similar trends are happening elsewhere.

“I’m pretty sure they are. I think [murder-suicide] is something that has come to our attention as a regular phenomenon just over the last decade or so.

“I’m sure it has happened sporadically before, but the frequency and regularity of what we’re seeing seems to be a phenomenon of recent years. We’re seeing it on a regular basis. That’s what this research has shown quite clearly. They are very tragic cases indeed.”