The RUC has opened two murder investigations after an Armagh woman was found strangled in bed and the body of a youth was found submerged in a water-filled hole in Co Down at the weekend. A number of men were arrested on Saturday after James Gerard Morgan (16) of Ballylough Road, Annsborough near Dundrum Bay was reported missing. The police said suspicious activity was reported at a field between Annsborough and the village of Clough on Friday night. Divers recovered the youth's body from the hole yesterday morning. A post-mortem is being carried out today.
Also at the weekend, the body of a former Ulster Defence Regiment member, Ms Janet O'Donaghue, was discovered when her 14-year-old daughter, Michelle, went to wake her at about 11 a.m. on Saturday. Ms O'Donaghue had spent Friday night with friends and visited a number of pubs in Armagh that evening. She had lived with her four children at Edenaveys Crescent on the outskirts of the city since shortly after returning to Armagh four years ago.
Neighbours in the quiet cul-de-sac just off the Newry Road were alerted to the tragedy by Michelle's screams of "My God, oh my God, mummy, mummy, what has happened?" It is believed Ms O'Donaghue's killer used a shoelace to choke her.
Mr Stephen Porter, a neighbour, spoke of hearing Michelle's screams as he was lying in bed. He got up, dressed and went into the street to find out what was happening. He said the boy from the adjoining house told him that "Janet is dead".
Another neighbour, Ms Caroline Willis, said: "It's a terrible thing to have happened, just terrible. Who could believe anyone could be murdered here?"
The victim's mother, Ms Noeleen Gordon, had left her daughter into Armagh to meet friends for the night out. She took the three eldest children to her home at Dobbin's Grove for the night.
"You couldn't start to believe how shocked we all are," Ms O'Donaghue's brother, Mr Norman Gordon, said. "Janet was a very good, kind person. She loved her children and they had just returned from a short break in the Republic of Ireland. She never did anyone a bad turn in her life and didn't deserve this," he said.
Det Supt Neville McCoubrey, who is heading the inquiry, described the killing as "senseless and heinous". He said no motive had yet been established but detectives were following a number of lines of inquiry.
Meanwhile, several people were injured when fighting broke out between Orange marching band members and youths from the Catholic lower Ormeau Road on Saturday night.
The disturbances broke out when followers of a band parade in Donegal Pass, not far from the Catholic streets, broke away from their area and tore down a banner with wording in Irish from a wall in the lower Ormeau. The banner was erected to mark a community festival in the Ormeau area. About 70 youths fought for about half an hour before being dispersed by RUC officers in riot gear.