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Community in shock as man kills family and self A
middle-aged
man shot his elderly parents dead before turning the gun on himself in
the latest murder-suicide to devastate a rural Irish community.
The bodies of 42-year-old metal sculptor Pat Sleator, his 82-year-old
mother Mary and 84-year-old father John-Joe were found in their two-storey
house just outside the scenic village of Grangecon in Co. Wicklow.
Two legally held firearms were discovered at the scene.
Locals were struggling to come to terms with the tragedy as they described
the family as private but friendly.
Local parish priest Father Thomas Dillon said everyone in the area was
shocked at the deaths.
He said: “It is a great tragedy.
“To lose one person in a tragic situation like this is terrible
but three people are lost for words.
“Maybe words are not important.”
Pat Sleator had been working in the farm hire business but gave it up
in recent years to turn his hand to metal sculpting.
Near neighbours said the triple deaths had been a dreadful shock while
relations Francis and Theresa Flood said it was a bolt from the blue.
The deaths came just days after a young mother took her life and that
of her child when they drowned in north Cork. |
