Suicide father murdered daughter he abducted

A man who shot his young daughter then turned his gun on himself as gardai arrived at their rented cottage in Co Tipperary had been on the run with the child for two years after abducting her, it emerged today.

Chris Crowley, 44, and his six-year-old daughter Deirdre, from Fermoy, Co Cork, had not been seen since he took her from her mother’s home in December 1999.

But gardai yesterday traced the pair to an address in Clonmel, Co Tipperary.

Officers went to a house in the town and spoke to a man, who appeared nervous, then left to make further inquiries.

When they returned 10 minutes later they heard shots as they approached the house.

They got into the house to find the bodies of Deirdre and Mr Crowley, with a gun nearby. Both had been shot.

State Pathologist Dr John Harbison will later today perform post mortem examinations.

Local people said last night that they had not known that anybody was even living in the house.

Neighbour Mary Horan said: "There was very little activity in the house - we were not even sure it was let. We never saw a child or anyone else. This is a very quiet area."

Relatives and friends were today comforting Deirdre’s mother, Christine O’Sullivan, who was said to be distraught and devastated, at her home in Fermoy.

She and Mr Crowley separated in 1998, but had an arrangement allowing Mr Crowley, a secondary school teacher, to visit his daughter.

Deirdre had spent the weekend she vanished with her father, who failed to return her to her mother’s home.

Gardai were treating Deirdre’s disappearance as an abduction.

It emerged that Mr Crowley had made meticulous plans to snatch his daughter, and had set aside a substantial amount of cash.

After Deirdre’s disappearance, Mr Crowley’s car was found in Wexford, near the ferry port of Rosslare, prompting speculation he had taken the little girl to Britain.

Nothing further was heard of the missing pair until yesterday’s tragedy.