Postmortem results to determine if a mother and her two children were murdered in their home in south Dublin are not expected until today as the examinations have not yet been completed.
Locum Assistant State Pathologist Dr Heidi Okkers on Thursday began, but had not completed, postmortems 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 believe the two children were strangled and their remains were found in a bedroom in the house on Llywellen Court, Ballinteer. A ligature was found with the remains of their mother, who was found dead in another bedroom.
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While an initial postmortem was performed on Ms Banu’s remains, it proved inconclusive and a more comprehensive examination was due to be conducted on 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.
Bank holiday
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 is due to go on trial early next year.
Garda Headquarters urged anyone with information about the deaths of Ms Banu and her children to come forward and aid the investigation.
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 postmortems 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 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”.
