Dead fraudster may end up in pauper’s grave
Her body and that of her partner Thomas Ruttle were stumbled upon by three burglars who broke into their family home at Boolaglass, near Askeaton on Monday.
The badly decomposed bodies lay beside one another in an upstairs bedroom. Gardaí yesterday positively identified the male remains as those of Mr Ruttle.
Gardaí are now satisfied the couple died in a suicide pact. Lengthy notes, written by both, were found in the kitchen in which they expressed the wish that the contents be read out at their inquests.
Mr Ruttle’s funeral is expected to take place in the coming days and he will be buried in the family plot at the Church of Ireland cemetery in Askeaton.
However, since she was formally identified on Wednesday, efforts to get relatives of Ms Holmes in the North to claim her body have failed.
One close relative has told journalists in Belfast the family does not want anything to do with her funeral.
A legal source said: “If this situation does not change, gardaí will have to request the coroner to arrange for Limerick City and County Council to take charge of the funeral and arrange a burial in what is colloquially referred to as a pauper’s grave.”
The coroner for West Limerick is senior counsel Brendan Nix.
Gardaí involved in the investigation have been in continual contact with the PSNI who have been liaising with her relatives.
As uncertainty continues about how her body is to be dealt with, a garda source said they are doing their utmost to have Ms Holmes receive a dignified burial in the North and are prepared to delay any decision as the remains are in a sanitised, cold-temperature environment in the morgue at Limerick University Hospital.
Ms Holmes met Mr Ruttle online more than three years ago, and she said they married abroad.
To convince locals in Boolaglass, where she moved to live with Mr Ruttle, she arranged for local clergyman Rev Keith Scott to perform a blessing of their marriage vows, vows which it transpired were non-existent.
She even arranged a party in Glin after the ceremony in St Mary’s Church of Ireland in Askeaton to put a further gloss on the celebrations.
Mr Ruttle was a quiet-spoken country man who came from a highly respected family.
He had two sons from a previous relationship and it has emerged that Ms Holmes had prevented him from having contact with them.
Ms Holmes’ outwardly charming masquerade was said to conceal a deep and dark personality. Her allure memerised many and, for Mr Ruttle, it proved fatal.
He never knew of Ms Holmes’ shady past in the US, from where she was deported after conning a group of Texan businessmen out of $500,000.
Another Texan, Clyde Parrish, whom Ms Holmes married, had to pay the fraud debts she incurred which resulted in her spending two years in jail.
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