A verdict of unlawful killing has been returned in the death of Emer O’Loughlin (23), whose remains were discovered in a burnt out mobile home 20 years ago in Co Clare.
On April 8th, 2005, the art student’s remains were discovered in the home close to where she lived with her boyfriend, at an area known as the New Line, Ballybornagh, Tubber.
Ms O’Loughlin’s sister, Pam O’Loughlin, said the family was “absolutely delighted with the verdict”.
“It is the first time that the State has acknowledged that Emer O’Loughlin was killed by someone else.”
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“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.”
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.
His whereabouts remain unknown.
After the inquest today, Ms 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.”
“The Garda investigation will continue and that won’t be affected by this [verdict] whatsoever. This was more for our family and a personal thing for our family to get the acknowledgment.”
She said the family hoped “we will get a suspect into court at some stage and justice for Emer”.
Ms O’Loughlin’s remains were found in an extensively fire damaged state.
Clare coroner Isobel O’Dea told the jury that retired deputy State pathologist, Dr Michael Curtis, in his postmortem conclusions was not able to provide an anatomical cause of death.
However, his evidence agreed the injuries “were consistent with deliberate violence committed by a third party”.
Ms O’Dea also pointed to evidence in Dr Curtis’s postmortem that found that there was no evidence of soot in Ms O’Loughlin’s lungs or carbon monoxide, indicating that she haddied before the fire.
Dr Curtis’s postmortem found Ms O’Loughlin’s remains “were extensively carbonised and destroyed” and the skull had detached.
He said the extreme degree of heat destruction made large parts of the body unavailable for examination and it was “impossible to exclude strangulation and or a cut throat injury as possible causes of death”.
The inquest also heard evidence via Zoom from Dr Laureen Buckley, a forensic anthropologist. She carried out a second postmortem examination after Ms O’Loughlin’s remains were exhumed in May 2010.
Dr Buckley was asked whether 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”.
In evidence, Det Gda John Keating of Gort Garda station gave evidence of being at the scene. He said Ms O’Loughlin, from Ennistymon, Co Clare 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, Ms O’Loughlin, an art student, had a day off from 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 Mr Bowe last saw Emer at 10am and advised her to call to their neighbour, John Griffin, to get her mobile phone charged as they were having problems with power in their own mobile home. Mr Bowe died in 2018.
Det Gda Keating said 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.
