Murdered Denise Morgan to be buried on Saturday

Wed, 01 Nov, 2023 - 22:39

Alison O'Reilly

The funeral of a mother shot dead in New York will take place in her home village of Tullyallen outside Drogheda in Co Louth on Saturday.

Denise Zaitschek, nee Morgan, 39, was murdered in Queens in the early hours of Saturday October 21, following an argument with her boyfriend who then turned the gun on himself.

New York’s Chief Medical Officer said she received gunshot wounds of the head and neck.

Her partner, Joed Taveras, 33, was also found dead in the home they shared, at Glendale close to Kew Gardens and Forest Hills, with a gun beside him.

Ms Morgan’s heartbroken family travelled to the US this week to repatriate her remains to Ireland.

An online notice on RIP.ie it said Ms Morgan would be “reposing at her home on Thursday from 3pm until 7pm and on Friday from 2pm until 7pm".

“Funeral mass on Saturday at 11am in the Church of the Assumption, Tullyallen."

It continued: “Denise, sadly missed by her heartbroken family, mam Deirdre, dad Noel, daughter Mollie and Mollie’s dad Larry, sisters Lisa and Shannon, brother John, nieces Kayleigh and Roisin, nephew Kayden, aunts, uncles, extended family, relatives and friends.

Denise Morgan. Picture: The Cottage Bar Restaurant/Facebook

“Burial afterwards in the adjoining cemetery. House private at all other times please.

“Family flowers only please. Donations, if desired, to the Kevin Bell Repatriation Trust."

Parish priest Fr Sean Dooley will oversee the service.

Ms Morgan moved to the US around five years ago and was working in The Cottage Bar restaurant in New York at the time of her death.

She was popular among staff there who posted online how “devastated” they were over her death.

She had separated amicably from her husband Larry Zaitschek and had met a new partner whom she was living with. Her daughter was not in the home when she died.

On Sunday around 250 of Ms Morgan’s friends and family gathered at Saint Teresa’s Church in Woodside New York to pay tribute to her.

Ms Morgan’s funeral will be livestreamed on the Mellifont Parish Tullyallen Facebook page.