Post mortem results to determine if a mother and her two children were murdered in their home in south Dublin are not expected until Friday as the examinations have not yet been completed.
Locum Assistant State Pathologist Dr Heidi Okkers on Thursday began, but had not completed, post mortems on the remains of Seema Banu (37) and her 11-year-old daughter Asfira Riza and 6-year-old son Faizan Syed.
Garda sources said detectives believed the two children were murdered but as the scene where their mother’s remains were found was more complex the results of a post mortem on her remains were required before it could be established if she was murdered.
Detectives believed the two children were strangled and their remains were found in a bedroom in the house. A ligature was found with the remains of their mother, who was found dead in another bedroom.
The bodies of the mother and two children were taken from their home on Llywellen Court, Ballinteer, just after 6pm on Wednesday, though the post mortems were not commenced until early on Thursday.
While results for all three examinations were hoped for on Thursday, Garda Headquarters, Phoenix Park, Dublin, confirmed those examinations would not be completed until Friday.
The deaths were officially being treated as “unexplained” though all the resources of a triple murder investigation have been committed to the case.
The remains of the children and their mother are believed to have lain undiscovered in the house for several days, with a tap left running in the semi detached house flooding the property.
The bodies were discovered by gardaí just after midday on Wednesday and gardaí suspect the mother and two children died over the Bank Holiday Weekend.
Ms Banu had been the victim of a serious assault earlier this year, which left her with a series of injuries. A suspect for that attack had been charged with assault causing harm and was due to go on trial early next year.
Confirming that the post mortems would not be completed until Friday, Garda Headquarters urged anyone with information on the deaths of Ms Banu and her children to come forward and aid the investigation.
“Investigating gardaí continue to appeal to members of the public not to circulate social media speculation, which is uninformed and unhelpful to the criminal investigation,” a Garda spokesman said, adding not further information was available at present.
The husband of Ms Banu, and father to the two children, has been liaising with gardaí based in Dundrum Garda station where the investigation is based.
No arrests have been made to date and gardaí said the results of the post mortems were crucial before the direction of the investigation could be determined.
Ms Banu was originally from India but had been living in Ireland for a number of years. She had only moved into the house in Ballinteer in recent months and the children were relatively new to Ballinteer Educate Together National School where Faizan Syed was in first class and Asfira Riza was in sixth class.
School principal Orlaith Curran said the children would be “greatly missed” by everyone who knew them.
She explained the school had implemented its ‘critical incident management plan’. Psychologists from the National Educational Psychological Service had on Thursday been “supporting and advising our school staff in preparation for the return of our students from the mid-term break”.
The Educate Together national office said it had learned of the children’s deaths “with great shock and sadness”, adding it was an “awful tragedy”
“Words fall short of expressing the shock and profound sadness many are feeling when thinking about the children and family affected. Our hearts are with the family, friends and classmates of the bereaved,” it said.
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