The jury at a second inquest into the death of a woman strangled by a man she brought back to her Dublin flat has returned a verdict of unlawful killing. Margot Seery (48), Kenilworth Square in Rathmines, Dublin, was found dead in her flat on October 8th, 1994.
The first inquest into her death held in May 1995 found she died of asphyxia due to alcohol intoxication. A second inquest took place at Dublin Coroner’s Court on Thursday to correct the record after a man presented himself at Rathmines Garda station 20 years later and confessed to the killing. Howard Kelly, Naas, Co Kildare, was convicted of murder at the Central Criminal Court and sentenced to life imprisonment last November.
Det Garda Insp George McGeary told the new inquest that Kelly came to Rathmines station on July 22nd, 2014, “wishing to confess to a murder”. He told gardaí he was socialising with a friend on October 7th, 1994, when they met two women near Kenilworth Square in Rathmines.
“He said he went to the flat of the older lady where he said he felt uncomfortable with the situation and strangled her with the intent to kill her,” Det Insp McGeary told the inquest.
Kelly brought gardaí back to where the incident happened. In a follow-up investigation, gardaí found Ms Seery had been discovered dead in her bed and Kelly’s description of her matched.
A friend of Ms Seery confirmed they had had drinks at a hotel on October 7th, 1994, and met two men afterwards. She rang Ms Seery’s doorbell later that night but there was no answer.
A second postmortem carried out after Ms Seery’s body was exhumed revealed some internal organs were missing.
Ms Seery’s brother, Pat Guinane, said after the inquest he was “disappointed that we haven’t got answers to too many of the questions we had – and we’re wondering if we ever will – about the original investigation into Margot’s death.
“There were a lot of questions to be asked, and we didn’t get answers to those.”
Ms Seery’s husband John, from whom she was separated at the time of her murder, spoke briefly afterwards. “We don’t know why things weren’t followed up. There were certain leads that weren’t fully investigated.”
The family had asked about the missing organs and were told that the mortician at the time of the first post mortem had died and therefore there was no way of finding out what had happened to them. Relatives said they planned to discuss the outcome of the inquest with Ms Seery’s daughter before deciding whether to lodge a formal complaint with Gsoc.