Murdered Irishman John Michael O’Sullivan's wife loses home in California

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The family of the Irishman who was shot dead in California last August is about to lose everything when the bank forecloses on their second home this coming Thursday.

The widow of John Michael O’Sullivan, 47, and his children will be forced into the street when the bank forecloses on their second home Thursday, the home they moved into after their first home foreclosed in January.

Krista Clem, wife of O’Sullivan, who was shot dead by his neighbor after a dispute ensued between them in August, told the Irish Voice in October it was her husband that dealt with financial matters, and his passing has left her up in a heap.

“We helped each other with everything, farm stuff, the businesses, just about everything. We were a great team,” Clem said.

“And John did all the dealings with the bank, it was all him.”

The ranch that Clem shared with her husband and four children in Fiddletown, Amador County in California and their second home in Shelter Cove (which they rent out as a vacation home) were under threat of repossession since O’Sullivan’s death. They were already behind in mortgage payments.

Clem, 43, has been unable to pay the mortgage on both houses, and in early January the bank removed one of the homes. This week they are about to take away the second.

Clem, who the Irish Voice could not contact before press deadline, took the children to Kerry for Christmas and told the Sunday Tribune that if all else fails in California she will strongly consider relocating there.

"Almost all our belongings are in a 40 foot container," said Clem.

"If I can’t sell enough I guess we'll have to send them to Ireland, and then at least we'll be around people that care about us.”

Back in October Clem described the loss of her husband as overwhelming.

“I am just so tired trying to do everything,” said Clem, a native Californian who married O’Sullivan in 2006. 

“It’s so hard now with the four kids, and no John. He was very energetic and powerful and he was such an exuberant person.”

O’Sullivan, who was the eldest of eight children from Valentia Island, Co. Kerry, leaves behind 16-month-old Tessie, Michael Seamus, 3, and his two stepchildren, Lydia, 8 and Jacob, 15.

O’Sullivan, who emigrated to the U.S. in the early eighties, was in the land developing business before his death. He was involved with two “green projects” that, when completed, promised to be successful business ventures.

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