"You'd think that when a man reached 83 years of age, he would be entitled to die in his bed." The words were those of Father Liam Cawley, parish priest of Charlestown-Bellaghy on the Sligo-Mayo border yesterday.
He was speaking as gardai initiated a full-scale criminal investigation into the death of an elderly widower, Mr Eddie Fitzmaurice.
Mr Fitzmaurice, a draper who lived alone above his shop in Bellaghy, was found dead in an upstairs bedroom on Wednesday evening after neighbours had not seen him for some days.
Lying on the floor and wearing night clothes, his hands and feet were tightly bound and he was gagged.
Post-mortem results last night stated that he had died from hypothermia.
It is believed that he fell from the chair to which he had been tied, probably after a break-in. Examinations by the Assistant State Pathologist, Dr Marie Cassidy, found that he had sustained minor injuries.
Chief Supt John Carey, who is leading the investigation by 40 gardai and detectives, said that medical evidence and statements from inquiries would be used to try and establish the precise time of Mr Fitzmaurice's death. Robbery may have been a motive, he said.
Mr Fitzmaurice's drapery shop is a long-established business in Bellaghy village, which is an extension of Charlestown and was once part of the Knox family estate.
Originally a native of Ballyhaunis in Co Mayo, Mr Fitzmaurice was a well-liked man and father of four children, three of whom live in Britain. One son lives in Limerick.
Mr Fitmaurice's wife, Rita, died some years ago. Before her death, he often toured the county selling clothes, boots, shoes and wellingtons in a van, and was familiar in small communities in the Ox Mountain area.
Small but physically strong, he did not look his years, according to one neighbour, Mr Patrick O'Hara. Mr Padraic Owens, principal of Curry National School a couple of miles away, said that Mr Fitzmaurice didn't look more than 60.
"I would imagine that an assailant would not have got away lightly," Mr Owens said.
The parish has a population of about 2,000, and the quiet community is no longer the bleak blackspot depicted by the late John Healy in his classic No One Shouted Stop.
Many young people are now employed in Castlebar, Sligo, Knock airport, and in local small industries and a bakery.
