Detectives in Sussex were yesterday examining letters found in a car with the bodies of two teenage girls who died at the weekend after a party.
The results of post-mortems carried out yesterday confirmed that the girls, Ms Jennifer Prinn (16), from Ballincollig, Co Cork, and Ms Elizabeth Gold (17) from Crawley, west Sussex, died from carbon monoxide poisoning.
Ms Prinn had been staying in Crawley with her friend, Ms Gold, for some days and on Saturday they attended a party at another teenager's house in the Pound Hill area nearby.
The teenage boy was celebrating passing his driving test. His parents were away for the evening and although events at the party are still being pieced together, police said some of the young people decided to sleep over at the house. At 8 a.m. on Sunday the girls' bodies were discovered in the family car in the garage.
A spokesman for Sussex police said foul play had been ruled out. He said the two girls had been friends in South Africa before their families moved to Ireland and England: "The Prinns went to the Republic of Ireland and the Golds came to England. The girls stayed in touch and visited each other. This was one of those visits."
At Colaiste Coilm, Ballincollig, where Ms Prinn was a fifth-year student, the school principal, Mr Pat Kinsella, said pupils were extremely shocked. All teachers and pupils had offered their sympathy to the Prinn family and everybody shared in the family's grief and distress.
Pupils at Ms Gold's secondary school, St Wilfrid's Catholic School, attended counselling sessions yesterday.
The school's headmaster, Mr Bernard Smith, described Ms Gold as a "splendid young lady".