Gardaí investigating the murder of Josephine ‘Josie’ Ray (89) in Co Tipperary last weekend have arrested a man and a woman.
Detectives arrested a man and a woman in their 50s on suspicion of murdering the mother-of-five whose body was found at her home at St Joseph’s Park in Nenagh on Sunday.
The pair, whom it is understood were known to the dead woman, were brought to separate Garda stations in Co Tipperary for questioning.
They are both detained under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act which allows gardaí to hold suspects for up to 24 hours before they must be charged or released.
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A grandmother and great grandmother, Ms Ray was found unresponsive at her house by a family member at about midday on Sunday and they immediately contacted the emergency services.
Ms Ray was pronounced dead at the scene and gardaí immediately cordoned off the scene and requested the services of the State Pathologist’s Office.
A postmortem on Ms Ray’s body by Deputy State Pathologist, Dr Yvonne McCartney, on Monday confirmed she had died from asphyxiation and gardaí opened a murder inquiry.
Officers began door to door inquiries in the St Joseph’s Park area while they also began canvassing homes and businesses for CCTV footage to see if they could identify any possible culprits.
Garda technical experts were able to establish that there was no sign of forced entry at Ms Ray’s two-storey terraced house leading to the belief that she may have known her killers and admitted them.
The arrests come just hours after Ms Ray was buried at Killodiernan Cemetery following her funeral mass at St Mary of the Rosary Church in Nenagh.
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