The bright July sunshine beating down on Castledaly, Co Westmeath, an ordinary Irish village, belied the sheer awfulness of what happened there on Saturday morning.
Local people dropping in to Sean Kelly's shop soon after 9 a.m. for their Saturday newspapers found the shutters down and the papers on the ground outside, still in the plastic wrapping in which they had been delivered.
It didn't take long before they realised something was wrong. Mr Greg Fox and his wife Ms Debbie Fox, who had bought the shop and moved to Castledaly about a year-and-a-half ago with their two young boys, were not usually late opening up. Just before 10 a.m. a neighbour went around the back of the house and looked in the window, where he saw "a dead adult" on the floor, according to the Garda.
Gardai and neighbours gained access to the house. In the kitchen they found the body of Ms Fox, with what appeared to be serious injuries. There was a lot of blood on the scene.
The bodies of the couple's two sons, Trevor (9) and Killian (7) were found in adjacent bedrooms, partially out of their beds. They too had suffered serious injuries and loss of blood.
Mr Greg Fox was then found in the shop adjoining the house. He was unconscious and appeared to be seriously injured. He was taken to Portiuncula hospital.
"At the moment, the investigation is centred around these premises," said Supt Kevin Donohoe, who is in charge of that inquiry. He described the scene inside the house as "horrific". A hurley stick and a knife were found there. They will be examined by members of the Garda Technical Bureau, who were on the scene for most of Saturday.
According to neighbours the Foxs were as nice a couple as you could meet. Although they hadn't been living in the village long, they were known to most people through their work in the small shop and filling station. They had bought it from a local man, Mr Sean Kelly, and chose to settle in the village, which is a few miles from Moate and about six miles from Athlone.
Trevor and Killian attended St Kieran's school, a short distance away. St Kieran's GAA club backs directly on to the family bungalow. The nearest pub, Fitzgerald's, is some way up the road. Local farmers on tractors passed through the usually quiet crossroads on Saturday, weaving their way past a couple of dozen cars and the plastic crime scene tape strung around the outside of the house.
Debbie Fox, nee Whelan, was originally from Portarlington, Co Laois. Her husband, Greg, is from Dublin. Ms Fox worked in the shop most days and was friendly and courteous to local people who dropped in for papers, for petrol or, as they might have done on an ordinary, sunny Saturday had circumstances been different, for an ice cream. Her husband worked elsewhere during the day but was also known to neighbours and was a popular man. Mr Gordon Duffy (21), who was plastering in a nearby house when the alarm was raised on Saturday morning, said the Foxs were "just lovely people".
Mr Duffy bought petrol regularly from the Foxs' shop, he said. Mr Fox would often let him "settle up" for it later in the week. "He was a pure gentleman."
The two young boys were mannerly but also mischievous in the way that most seven-and nine-year-old children are. They would sometimes knock on the door of the house where Mr Duffy was working, and then run away, he said.
Many neighbours were reluctant to talk to the media. Nor did anyone at Fitzgerald's pub, where Greg and Debbie Fox socialised last Friday night, wish to talk about what had happened.
Several bunches of flowers had been propped against the outside wall of the house. One card bade goodbye to Debbie, "my friend". "I'll miss you."