GARDAÍ BELIEVE carbon monoxide poisoning from an open coal fire may have caused the deaths of a man and his two children in a house in Co Sligo.
Trevor Wallwork (50), his daughter Kim (12) and son Harry (9) died on Sunday evening in their remote country bungalow at Moygara, Gurteen, while they were watching television.
They were discovered by Mr Wallwork’s stepdaughter Vicki Barnes (22), when she was unable to get an answer to her telephone calls and she drove to the house from her home in nearby Tubbercurry.
Toxicology tests are to be carried out on the three bodies following the completion of post mortem examinations at Sligo General Hospital last night.
Gardaí said the remaining tests would take a number of weeks to complete, but they said the post mortems indicated the deaths were caused by carbon monoxide poisoning.
They said there was a gas container linked to a heater in the hallway and they believed the family was heating the rest of the house with that.
In addition there was a coal fire burning in the sitting-room where the family were watching television. A Garda source said the origin of the poisoning appeared to be the coal fire.
Forensics officers will continue investigations today to establish what the ventilation was like in the sitting-room.
Neighbours and gardaí said Ms Barnes found Mr Wallwork in an armchair and the children on the floor of the living room. The television in the room was still on.
Ms Barnes’s mother, Sue – Mr Wallwork’s wife – was in Sligo General Hospital being treated for an illness.
Ms Barnes discovered the bodies after 9.30pm on Sunday and she alerted the ambulance service. A local doctor pronounced the three occupants of the house dead at the scene just before 11pm. Two dogs were also found dead in the house.
Overnight, gardaí sealed off the area surrounding the house. They remained there until the arrival of Deputy State Pathologist Michael Curtis yesterday.
A neighbour said the first she knew of the tragedy was when she heard the ambulance arrive at about 10.10pm on Sunday. She said: “I didn’t even hear Vicki’s car arrive earlier. We heard later that she couldn’t get in contact with her stepdad or the children and she drove to the house.”
The couple had moved to Sligo from their home in England six years ago. The neighbour said: “They kept themselves to themselves. I only heard Sue wasn’t very well a few months ago.”
Mr Wallwork spent his time caring for his ill wife. His children Kim and Harry, from an earlier partnership, attended nearby Mullaghroe National School.
Michael McKeown, a farmer who lives nearby, said he knew the two children but not their parents. “I would give the young boy and his sister a lift up the lane if I ever came across them when they were coming back from school. They were lovely. One time their mother gave me eggs . . . They seemed like really nice people.”
Gardaí were last night making contact with the children’s mother in England to break the news of the deaths to her. They described the incident as “a terrble tragedy”.
TIMELINE: CARBON MONOXIDE DEATHS
January 2011
A 35-YEAR-OLD woman died of carbon monoxide poisoning while staying at a hotel in Kinsale, Co Cork. Miriam Reidy died at the Trident Hotel in the early hours of January 9th. She had been staying at the hotel with her sister, Patricia, while attending a hen party in Kinsale for her cousin, Marie Reidy.
August 2010
Aaron Davidson and Neil McFerran, both 18 and from Newtownabbey in Co Antrim, were found dead of apparent carbon monoxide poisoning in the seaside village of Castlerock in Co Derry. They were on a short break before their exam results were due to be released. A third friend, Matthew Gaw, was with them and was taken to hospital, but later recovered.
November 2010
A man and his wife were overcome by carbon monoxide fumes at a house at Kesh Road, Irvinestown, Co Fermanagh. Estate agent Killian Scallon was found dead at the house. His wife Pauline died in hospital six days later.
April 2010
Frank Murphy (67), Knightstown, Valentia, Co Kerry, was found dead in his home, where there was a strong “oily smell” which appeared to come from an oil range or oil tank. Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margot Bolster, who carried out a postmortem, found the cause of death to be acute carbon monoxide poisoning due to the inhalation of fumes from an oil range.
September 2009
Two elderly women died of carbon monoxide poisoning after a grill door on a cooker was left closed in Co Donegal. Annie Gallagher (84), and Sarah McDyer (79), were found dead at Ms Gallagher’s home in Glenties. Pathologist Dr Gerry O’Dowd, who carried out both autopsies, found they had died as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning.
December 2008
Pádraig Hughes (20), died in bed in his Co Mayo home on Christmas morning after inhaling gas central heating emissions. His twin sister, Emma, who later made a full recovery, was found unconscious in bed in an adjacent room. An inquest later heard carbon monoxide had entered both bedrooms through a fractured flue pipe while the Hughes family were asleep at their home at Rosbeg, Westport. Their father Cathal Hughes has since called for carbon monoxide alarms to be made compulsory in all new homes.
December 2005
Erly Rodrigues da Silva (44), and Roberto Pernas Ramos (27), both originally from Brazil, were believed to have been overcome by carbon monoxide fumes from a home heater at their rented house in Gort, Co Galway.
October 2003
Bridget Heffernan (76) and Fiona Heffernan (39), the mother and sister of well-known jazz singer Honor Heffernan, died after they were exposed to a lethal level of carbon monoxide in the kitchen of their home in Stoneybatter, Dublin.