Gardaí were last night treating as suspicious the death of a 68-year-old man whose body was found with a wardrobe lying on top of him at a house in the Togher area of Cork city yesterday.
A neighbour found the body of John Connolly when she called with a representative of the Meals on Wheels organisation to Mr Connolly's house at Shournagh Lawn, Togher, at around midday.
The woman from Meals and Wheels had called to the house, but received no answer. She then called to a neighbour, Ann Kelleher, who returned with her to Mr Connolly's house.
After calling his name three times and receiving no answer, they entered the house.
The body of Mr Connolly, who lived alone, was found lying face down in his bedroom with a wardrobe on top of him. It is understood that Mr Connolly, who was wearing his pyjamas pants, had injuries to his shoulder and arm.
The two women raised the alarm and contacted gardaí in Togher. They cordoned off the house, and called the Garda Technical Bureau, which was due to travel from Dublin last night to carry out a forensic examination of the house.
Mr Connolly's remains were expected to be removed late last night to Cork University Hospital, where pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster will carry out a postmortem examination this morning.
A Garda source said yesterday that gardaí would wait until Dr Bolster had concluded her examination.
"At the moment we're treating this as a suspicious death. We really can't go any further than that at the moment without knowing the cause of death.
"It looks suspicious, but it might turn out that the deceased died as a result of an accident."
According to a Garda source, Mr Connolly's house had been broken into a number of times in recent months.
Detectives from Togher yesterday carried out door-to-door inquiries in the Shournagh Lawn area to try to establish if anyone had seen suspicious activity in the area.
