New garda appeal on mother's drowning
ONE YEAR ON: Yvonne's death in canal mystery remains unsolved
Wednesday November 25 2009
MYSTERY still surrounds the death of a Dublin mother-of-four who drowned in unusual circumstances in the Grand Canal as her horrified children looked on.
Gardai have today renewed their appeal for information in relation to the death of Yvonne O'Shea (40), from Crumlin, who died after she went into the water from a narrow towpath road close to Vicarstown, Co Laois, on the night of November 22, last year.
Yvonne's four young sons were in the car, and flagged down a passing motorist as they watched their father enter the water after Yvonne.
Vicarstown resident Pat Coleman later said his jeep had been flagged down by the children while he was driving along the canal road that night.
BOWLING
The children told him that the family's Ford Fiesta car had run out of petrol and the parents were trying to push it off the road when their mother ended up in the water.
The incident happened in darkness along the stretch of canal between Vicarstown and Athy after Yvonne and the children had been on a bowling outing to Carlow with her ex-partner and their father, George Lawlor.
Gardai were alerted to the fact that Yvonne had gone into the water at about 7pm.
Local gardai arrived at the scene quickly and went into the canal after her. However, they were unable to save her life.
Yvonne's body was removed to Tullamore General Hospital, where a postmortem was carried out which established that the cause of death was drowning. While the circumstances were at first investigated as an accident, gardai later upgraded their probe and arrested a man in relation to Yvonne's death.
He was later released without charge and a file sent to the DPP.
Two houses in Crumlin were searched, as well a house in Co Kildare, and a stun gun was found by investigating gardai. The canal was also searched along the section where Yvonne drowned.
Gardai today told the Herald the matter is still under investigation.
"No charges have been preferred to date, and we are making a fresh appeal for anyone with information to contact Gardai at Portlaoise on 057-8674100," said the garda spokesperson.
cfeehan@herald.ie
- Conor Feehan
