Gardaí have begun an investigation to try to establish what led to the deaths of an elderly couple whose bodies were found in their house on the outskirts of Cork city on Monday evening.
The bodies of the couple, who were both in their 80s, were found in the house in Glounthaune, between Cork and Carrigtwohill, by relatives when they called to the house at about 5pm.
The relatives broke down the door when they got no reply and discovered two bodies near the stairs. They immediately alerted the gardaí who cordoned off the scene.
According to a Garda source, there is nothing at this stage to suggest that the couple were the victims of foul play, but they are keeping an open mind as to what may have happened to them.
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“We tested the house for gas but there was no evidence of any gas leak there,” said the source. “We don’t know at this stage what happened, but it doesn’t appear as if they were the victims of foul play.”
Garda forensic experts are due to carry out a technical examination of the scene on Tuesday while gardaí hope postmortems will help explain what happened to the couple.
Gardaí have begun door-to-door inquiries and have established the couple spoke to someone as recently as Sunday. They have also begun harvesting CCTV footage from the area.
