"She was a lovely woman. She minded her own business and wasn't into gossip or anything like that. And she was a brilliant knitter. She knitted Aran jumpers for years for different agencies.
"It's very hard to come to terms with what has happened to her."
So said a friend of Evelyn Joel (58) in Enniscorthy yesterday as gardaí arrived at a house in a recently built estate in the town at the foot of Vinegar Hill to examine the bedroom where Ms Joel had spent her final days.
She was removed by ambulance from the two-storey semi-detached house in the Cluain Dara estate on New Year's Day in a severely malnourished state.
A garda said she was found in "absolutely horrendous circumstances", with the ambulance crew having to don special gowns and gloves to remove her from the house.
She was admitted to Wexford General Hospital where she died on Saturday. Gardaí and the Health Service Executive are now investigating.
Yesterday, people in Cluain Dara were unsure how long Ms Joel had lived in the council house. She had moved into the house occupied by her daughter Eleanor who is in her late 20s or early 30s, Eleanor's partner and their two young children. They are expecting their third child later this year. Some said Eleanor's mother had been living in the house for six months; others said it was a year, or possibly more.
Many who were willing to speak said they never knew the woman, who suffered from arthritis and multiple sclerosis, was in the house. She had been bed-bound in recent months.
One young woman, who asked not to be named, said she had only seen Ms Joel arriving at the house by taxi and being helped into the house in a wheelchair once. That was some months ago.
Another woman said Eleanor and her partner "walked up and down every day and nobody knew they had anybody in there. It's a close-knit community here. Everybody looks out for one another. There is no way it would have happened if people knew she was in there."
Others spoke about how Ms Joel, who was born Evelyn Connolly, had been part of a large family. She had three brothers and four sisters and her father, Matt, represented Ireland at international fishing and clay pigeon shooting competitions.
In her 20s she married her first cousin Billy Joel, a brick layer. They had two children - Liam and Eleanor - before deciding to separate.
A girl who went to school with Eleanor spoke about how her mum always had a lovely lunch prepared and how she appeared to have more treats than other children. Her son Liam still lives in Enniscorthy but its understood he and his mother did not remain in regular contact.
Fr Brian Broaders, the parish administrator who officiated at her funeral Mass on Tuesday, said of Evelyn: "We all have our crosses to bear. Evelyn had more than what seemed to be her fair share in this life."
Last evening he described Evelyn, who also enjoyed an odd game of bingo, as "a lovely gentle lady . . . a very retiring type of person".
He said however, he had not seen her for a number of months.
"She obviously wasn't in good health and she wouldn't have been out too much because of her bad health," he said.
Fr Broaders added that people in the community were shocked at the circumstances of her death as they had been reported.
"And it was happening and nobody knew. How is it everybody is able to know so much now? It's very sad and of course people are shocked and saddened," he said.
A simple wooden cross with a plaque bearing Evelyn's name, address and age, now marks the spot in St Mary's Cemetery just outside the town where Evelyn was laid to rest on Tuesday. Her grave, next to that of her parents, is covered in fresh flowers, from family and friends.
To an outsider, it offers no hint of the current controversy surrounding her death.