Verdict of unlawful killing returned over death of woman (23) whose remains were found in burnt-out mobile home

Gordon Deegan

An inquest jury returned a verdict of unlawful killing in the death of art student Emer O’Loughlin (23) whose charred remains were discovered in a burnt-out mobile home 20 years ago near Tubber in Co Clare.

As Clare County Coroner, Isobel O'Dea read out the verdict at Kilrush courthouse on Wednesday, Emer’s sister, Pam wept in the public gallery after earlier urging Ms O’Dea to recommend to the jury the verdict of unlawful killing.

In the long running Garda investigation into Ms O'Loughlin's death, gardaí are seeking to speak to the owner of the burnt out mobile home, John Griffin (58) formerly of Mervue, Galway to assist with their inquiries and his whereabouts remain unknown.

After the inquest, Pam O’Loughlin made a fresh appeal to those who have information around her sister’s death and the person of interest in the case.

She said: “People know where he is and they communicate with him and I would appeal to people to come forward even anonymously to let the Garda know where he might be and that is the only way this is going to move forward.”

Ms O’Loughlin said that the family is “absolutely delighted with the verdict”.

She said: “It is the first time that the State has acknowledged that Emer O’Laughlin was killed by someone else."

“Until now we have had 'suspicious death' and this is the first time we have had it confirmed that Emer was killed by someone else. It was what we came here today for.

“The Garda investigation will continue and that won’t be affected by this whatsoever. This was more for our family to get the acknowledgement that after 20 years of everything being wishy washy and not having a definite cause of death, it is now confirmed she was killed by someone else.”

Pam said that the O'Loughlin family hope that "we will get a suspect into court at some stage and justice for Emer”.

Ms O’Loughlin’s extensively fire-damaged remains were found in the burnt-out mobile home at an area known as the New Line, Ballybornagh, Tubber on April 8th 2005.

One of the first on the scene of the afternoon on April 8th, 2005, Cronan Forde of Carron, Co Clare, told the inquest that he saw Ms O’Loughlin’s skull “a foot or two” from her body.

Ms O’Dea told the jury that retired deputy State pathologist, Dr Michael Curtis, in his post mortem conclusions, was not able to provide an anatomical cause of death, but in his evidence agreed that the injuries “were consistent with deliberate violence committed by a third party”.

Ms O’Dea also pointed to evidence in Dr Curtis’s post mortem that found that there was no evidence of soot in Emer O'Loughlin's lungs or carbon monoxide, indicating that she had unfortunately died before the fire.

After evidence concluded, Pam O’Loughlin addressed Ms O’Dea in the absence of the jury to state that the evidence “points to the involvement of another person in the death of my sister”.

In his post-mortem, which was carried out the following day at University Hospital Galway, Dr Curtis concluded that the cause of death was undetermined.

He said that Ms O’Loughlin’s remains “were extensively carbonised and destroyed” and that the distal upper limbs and lower limbs were absent while the skull had detached.

He said that the extreme degree of heat destruction made large parts of the body unavailable for examination

He said: “The neck and throat regions in particular were absent and it is thus impossible to exclude strangulation and or a cut throat injury as possible causes of death."

Det Garda John Keating of Gort Garda Station gave evidence of being at the scene in 2005.

At the conclusion of his evidence, Pam O’Loughlin asked Det Garda Keating with all of the knowledge he knew about the case, did the circumstances of Emer’s death point to the involvement of another person.

In response, Det Garda Keating said that notwithstanding two post-mortems were unable to provide a cause of death, “I believe the circumstances of the death are connected to the actions of a third party”.

Earlier in evidence, Det Garda Keating said that native of Ennistymon, Co Clare, Emer O’Loughlin had lived with her boyfriend, Shane Bowe at their mobile home at New Line, Tubber since May 2004.

He said that on April 8th, 2005, Emer had a day off from her college in Galway as it was closed to mark the funeral of John Paul II and Mr Bowe went to work in Lisdoonvarna.

He said that Mr Bowe last saw Emer at 10am that morning and advised her to call to her neighbour, John Griffin to get her mobile phone charged as they were having problems with power in their own mobile home.

Det Garda Keating said that Mr Bowe later died in 2018.

Under questioning from Ms O’Dea, Det Garda Keating said that no evidence of accelerant was found at the scene.

He said that the most intense part of the fire was where Ms O’Loughlin’s remains lay.

The inquest also heard evidence via Zoom from Dr Laureen Buckley, a forensic anthropologist, who carried out a second post-mortem examination after Ms O’Loughlin’s remains were exhumed in May 2010.

Dr Buckley was also asked by Pam O'Loughlin if the injuries to the vertebrae were consistent with deliberate violence by another person, and replied, "It could have been, but I couldn’t say with certainty.”