Gardaí investigating the deaths of a couple at their home in south Co Tipperary are to examine a mobile phone and related records in an attempt to establish when the man and woman died.
Officers hope the exercise might provide some leads that can assist them in concluding what exactly caused the deaths of pensioners Nicholas and Hilary Smith at their home in Cloneen.
The English nationals, who are believed to have died many months before their bodies were found this week, had a mobile phone and a source said checks would be made to see when they last made calls or sent text messages.
Such records can play an important role when trying to establish a date of death in cases where someone may have been deceased for a prolonged period before their body is found as decomposition can make establishing a time of death complicated.
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“It can be very difficult to establish when somebody died because there are so many variables,” a source said. “Environmental factors such as temperature can be critical, as warm temperatures will lead to faster decomposition, which makes establishing a time and cause of death more difficult.
“Often, a forensic pathologist may seek assistance from a forensic entomologist, who may be able to establish from any insect activity on a body and their larval cycle when a person died, but that is not possible if a body has been in a sealed environment where insects have no access.”
A source said postmortems rely on whether muscle and organs are sufficiently intact to allow tissue samples to be taken, which may reveal if someone died from a disease or illness or if death was due to the ingestion of a substance or inhalation of a gas such as carbon monoxide.
When a pathologist is unable to offer a clear date of death, the investigation often focuses on external factors such as any perishable items found in a house and their expiry dates. It is understood that gardaí have established that milk found in the Smiths’ fridge suggests that they may have died in late 2020. The examination of phone records may help to confirm this.
The body of Mr Smith, a retired sea captain, was found in a bedroom in the bungalow bought by the couple some 10 years ago. The body of Ms Smith, who worked on cruise ships, was found in the livingroom.
Garda inquiries locally have also suggested that the Smiths may have died in late 2020 as they told some people around then that they were moving to France and selling the house to another English couple who would move in once their lease on a property in the UK ended.
Gardaí are understood to be checking with local postmen to try to establish when they stopped delivering letters to the Smiths and speaking to home heating oil companies to see when and how much oil they delivered to the house in an attempt to calculate a date of death.
Officers also plan to take a detailed statement from a local gardener who was paid by the Smiths to continue cutting the grass after they informed him they were moving abroad. They are understood to have asked him to ensure the garden was in a neat state for when the new owners arrived in 2021.
