A community is in shock and a family in mourning after the body of a heavily pregnant woman was found in the Irish Sea.
Anna Byrne, a 35-year-old Dubliner living in the Meath village of Dunboyne, was due to give birth to twins next week.
Her family launched a desperate search when she failed to pick up one of her other two young children from a crèche on Wednesday.
Police have confirmed that her body was found near the Bailey lighthouse off Howth, north county Dublin, by a helicopter at dawn on Friday.
Officers had earlier traced a signal from Byrne’s mobile phone to the harbour town of Dun Laoghaire.
Her brother Ciaran Deeney led the search. He said on Thursday that his sister was ‘highly hormonal’ due to her pregnancy and it was uncharacteristic of her to vanish.
The family have asked for privacy as police treat the incident as a personal tragedy according to the Irish Independent newspaper.
Byrne’s Nissan Micra car was found at the summit car park at Howth Head around midnight on Wednesday.
Meath councillor Maria Murphy told the paper that Byrne and her family had lived in the area for the past five years.
“People are just shocked. It’s your worst nightmare,” she told the Irish Independent. “Everyone is very sympathetic to what the family is going through.”
4 Comments
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.IrelandNorth | Mar 12, 2012, 08:55 AM EDT
Yerffac! People probably didn't help for the same reason that you didn't. They didn't know about. If the case you mentione is Ann Lovett, she didn't kill herself. She died giving birth. Sadly, it's a measure of the kind of society we live in all round the world. Radically individualisic, uncaring, materially obsessed, superficial, valueless.
bunkerhill | Mar 09, 2012, 03:46 PM EST
What a beautiful young woman and what a terrible tragedy this is for all concerned. Depression is an awful thing and I feel the family often does not know the extent of the mental anguish or the cause. God Bless all involved in this tragedy.
LaoiseRyan | Mar 09, 2012, 12:24 PM EST
Yerffac, why is what happened in the 70s relevant to this sad incident? Not every person suffering with depression can be saved and sometimes, no one even is aware that someone is depressed. This story is tragic. RIP and condolences to her family.
Yerffac | Mar 09, 2012, 10:58 AM EST
Nor the first pregnant woman to kill herself in Ireland. Remember the poor soul who was pregnant and killed herself in a church back in the 70s. Of course in those days a single woman who got pregnant incurred the wrath of the clergy and her family, and the poor unwanted homes where she gave it for adoption)lived in shame and was called bastard or worst all his or her life. For all its problems now--drugs, crime, etc.--Ireland is a better place for women. I assume the death of this lovely young mother was a suicide and wonder why didn't someone help her?