Gardaí investigating the discovery of a woman and a baby at their home in Dublin 15 at the weekend believe they died from ingesting a poisonous substance.
The remains of the woman, who gardaí said was aged in her 40s, and her 11-month-old son were found in an upstairs bedroom at a property in Beechfield Court, Clonee at about 3pm on Saturday.
Gardaí believe the baby met with foul play and his death was being treated on Sunday night as a suspected homicide. Foul play by a third party was not suspected in the woman’s death.
Detectives were awaiting the full set of results from postmortems on the mother and son, including toxicology tests, before determining the direction of the investigation.
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While the results of such tests can take some time, Garda sources said they did not believe the woman or the baby boy had died of natural causes. The inquiry is focused on what they ingested before their deaths.
The house where the bodies of the mother and child were found remained sealed off as a crime scene on Sunday.
Gardaí were not looking for anyone else in relation to their deaths.
The alarm was raised on Saturday afternoon, when gardaí and paramedics went to the property and found the bodies in a bedroom.
The woman and boy were pronounced dead at the scene and the house was sealed off as a crime scene.
The bodies remained at the house until Saturday night, where a preliminary examination was carried out by a pathologist. They were then removed late on Saturday to undergo full postmortems.
The property has undergone a forensic examination by members of the Garda Technical Bureau. Gardaí have contacted members of the woman and child’s family and a Garda family liaison officer has been appointed.
“The outcomes of a postmortem examination will determine the course of Garda investigations into both deaths,” a Garda statement said, adding that no further information was available at this stage of the inquiry.
