Gardai are this weekend remaining tight-lipped about the route that the investigation into the triple killing of a family in Windgap is taking.
Chief investigators are not commenting on their direct line of enquiry or any chief suspects at this time leaving members of the public in the dark about what happened on Christmas morning in the town just a few miles from Callan.
Gardai are looking for the killer of Sharon Whelan and her two young daughters, Zsara (7 ), and Nadia (2 ) who were found dead in their country cottage on Christmas morning. However, the investigation has still not been upgraded to a murder investigation.
DNA screening of men in the area has taken place in a bid to unfold the mystery of who is responsible for the deaths and the blaze that killed the young mother and her two small daughters.
It is understood that although there is no single suspect the house was visited by a man in the early hours of Christmas morning. Marks were found on Sharon's neck and the 30-year-old mother was dead before the fire broke out. However, it is understood that post-mortem analysis by State Pathologist Marie Cassidy did not firmly establish that she was strangled.
Gardai are also investigating the sightings of a wine coloured car that was seen in the area at about eight o’ clock on Christmas morning and anyone with information is asked to contact them.
Several men who knew Ms Whelan were questioned in the days after the discovery of the bodies but have been eliminated from the investigation. It’s believed that the Gardai are working on a theory that she was killed by some form of suffocation or strangulation and that the killer then set fire to the house to cover the evidence.
There was no smoke in Sharon's lungs -- indicating her earlier death -- but the two young girls died of smoke inhalation despite desperate attempts by firemen and two ambulance crews to resuscitate them.
The funerals of Sharon Whelan and her two daughters took place on New Year’s Day and were attended by around 300 people at St Nicholas’ Church in Windgap along with the fathers of the two girls, one of whom lives nearby, and the other who lives near Callan and is in a new relationship with a family.
At the funeral Mass, Fr Martin Cleere, Parish Priest said that there were no words to describe the tragedy.
The family is mourned by Sharon’s parents, Christy and Nancy, her brothers, John, Paul and David and sister Linda, other relatives and friends.
