WHEN the body of the 68 year old retired farmer, Mr Tom Casey, was found at 1.20 pm yesterday, he was lying face down in his blood on his kitchen floor with his hands and feet tied.
First indications were that he might have been lying there for two days.
Mr Casey lived alone outside the village of Oranmore near Galway city. But his home was not in a remote location it is set back from the busy Galway to Dublin road, less than 100 yards from a large roundabout. The house is partially concealed by an overgrown garden, but it is close to other houses.
By yesterday, neighbours were getting anxious about him they had not seen him since Sunday and a plastic bag containing a piece of bacon they had left for him was stilling hanging on his front door yesterday morning. They alerted gardai, and Garda Charles Loughlin went to investigate.
He entered the small two storey house with Mr Tom Sheridan, a neighbour of the victim, and found the body in the kitchen.
While there was no immediate indication that the dead man had suffered a sustained beating, as in similar recent attacks in the west of Ireland, there was an injury to his head and the house had been ransacked.
The house at Oranbeg, six miles from Galway, was sealed off pending the arrival of the State pathologist, Dr John Harbison, who is due to examine the scene today.
Members of a special Garda investigation unit are travelling from Dublin. Gardai at Mill Street station in Galway, who launched a murder investigation yesterday afternoon, have established an incident room to co ordinate their inquiries.
Mr Casey, a single man with no immediate family, used to farm a 20 acre holding which is now leased. He was known as reserved and shy.
According to neighbours, who occasionally dropped in food, he kept to himself. There was no electricity in the house, and he had declined an offer from neighbours to arrange an ESB connection. He had neither television nor radio.
He had no guard dog, despite having been being robbed in the past.
"It was an awful shock to find him like this," Mr Sheridan said. "It is the worst thing that I have ever seen. We are all in shock. We cannot believe that something like this could happen on our doorsteps."
Mr Casey was a familiar figure in Oranmore. He shopped in the village with a wheel barrow once a week. He loaded it with groceries and peat briquettes and paid with his social welfare cheque.
Dr Sean O Conchubhair, who lives nearby, said the plastic bag was hanging from Mr Casey's door since Sunday afternoon. "I was surprised to see the bag still there two days later. Neighbours used to give him food. It is very sad because everyone knew he hadn't even a few bob to rub together."
Supt Tony Finnerty, who is heading the investigation, said that while there was a clear indication of a robbery, there was no sign of a forced entry.
"We are trying to establish when Mr Casey was last seen in Oranmore. We believe that he may have been left in the house for several days."
Father John O'Dwyer, the parish priest of Oranmore, who administered the last rites to Mr Casey, said that while the dead man was inclined to reject offers of charity and would not talk to people, neighbours and the Garda were very good to him.
"He was also a lovely person. He would not injure a fly. He would be the last person you would want to injure."
He said that social services personnel and local gardai were conscious that Mr Casey might be vulnerable to attack. The community, he said, was appalled when it emerged that that he had been tied up and possibly left for days.
"These kind of incidents have left many old people who live alone afraid. I myself live alone. I know what it is like to be robbed. I have been broken into twice in the past. People no longer have money at home. If this happens in a village like ours, what of the people in the remoter areas?"
The incident is the latest in a series of attacks on elderly people living alone, particularly in the west of Ireland, since the summer. Two farmers were tortured in separate incidents last month near Portumna, Co Galway.
The attacks have mostly been concentrated in rural parts of Galway, Mayo and Roscommon. Farmers living alone have been the prime target.
Anyone with information about the latest incident is asked to call gardai at 091 563161.
