Tragic honeymoon death of Mickey Harte's daughter

It seems likely that she disturbed a break-in. Just awful.

The daughter of Tyrone GAA manager Mickey Harte was murdered in her hotel room while on honeymoon, police in Mauritius have confirmed. A post-mortem examination on 27-year-old teacher Michaela Harte revealed that she had been strangled. She was found dead in the room by her new husband, Down senior Gaelic footballer John McAreavey. Superintendent Yoosoof Soopun, from the Mauritius Police Force, said officers had identified six potential suspects and were confident of an arrest. He said Mr McAreavey was in the restaurant of the hotel when his wife was murdered. "She had gone back to the room to get some biscuits to put in her tea and, when she failed to return, her husband went to look for her," he said. "When he found her in the room, she had been killed. He tried to help her but she was already dead. "A post-mortem has showed she was strangled, she died from neck compression." Mr Soopun said the killer had used an electronic key card to enter the room. "There was no forced entry into the room," he said. "Whoever killed her definitely used an electronic card." He added: "This is being viewed with much concern by the police and government of Mauritius. We are doing everything we can to find whoever was responsible."

Deepest condolences to the Harte family and her husband. I had the honor of meeting Mickey Harte at the 2008 GAA All-Stars event in San Francisco, he is a real gentleman and must be devastated by the death of Michaela. I will always remember the image of her unbounded joy when Tyrone won their first All Ireland in 2003.