A senior Garda officer has been appointed to investigate circumstances surrounding the deaths of a Cork teacher and his daughter. The bodies of Chris Crowley and six-year-old Deirdre were found in a house in Clonmel yesterday.
Gardaí said that after the investigation is completed a file would be forwarded to the coroner, so that an inquest can be carried out. The Gardaí also said that it would be inappropriate for them to discuss any matters in relation to the investigation prior to the holding of an inquest.
Forty-four-year-old Christopher Crowley, a former maths and French teacher who taught in Fermoy, had been missing for nearly two years. It is understood that he shot his six-year-old daughter dead, before killing himself, after being discovered by Gardaí yesterday.
Yesterday's shooting took place at a rented house at Colville Road in Clonmel. Gardaí investigating Deirdre's abduction had paid one visit to the house, talking to a man who behaved in a nervous fashion.
After leaving to make further enquiries, they returned ten minutes later and heard the sound of shots. They forced their way into the house and found the bodies with a firearm lying nearby.
Christine O'Sullivan last saw her daughter Deirdre on 4 December, 1999, when the little girl was collected from her home at Douglas in Cork by her father. The couple had separated the previous year, but they had come to an arrangement about visiting.
Deirdre spent the weekend with her father but the two failed to return. Gardaí treated Deirdre's disappearance as an abduction case. They discovered that Chris Crowley had meticulously planned his disappearance and had a substantial amount of cash set aside.
Just days before Christmas, they discovered his car in Wexford, prompting speculation that he and his daughter had taken the ferry from Rosslare.
Christine O'Sullivan spoke of the strain which her daughter's disappearance placed on her on the day of Deirdre's fifth birthday in August last year.
Despite the passing months, Ms O'Sullivan maintained hope that Deirdre would return safely. She is said to be devastated by the events that unfolded at Clonmel.
Ms O'Sullivan's family has said that she is deeply shocked by yesterday's tragedy and they have appealed for privacy. Christine O'Sullivan's sister, Mary, thanked the public for their messages of support and the Gardaí for the work they put into finding Deirdre.
She also thanked the media for their support since Deirdre's disappearance, but she said that Christine needed space to come to terms with what had happened.
MEP Mary Banotti, who has campaigned for many years on the issue of child abduction, worked closely with Deirdre's mother over the last 18 months. She said this morning that the girl's father must have been given help in hiding her, and this raises many questions.
"I don't honestly think that Mr Crowley could have stayed in Ireland and kept that child hidden without a considerable amount of help from people, who may have thought they were helping him, but who in a sense have colluded in this frightful tragedy," she said on RTÉ Radio.
