BBCThe household of a County Down girl discovered lifeless in Monaghan in March have blamed what they see as a sequence of errors by Garda (Irish police) investigators for leaving them with unanswered questions on what occurred.
Kelly Lynch, 23, was discovered within the Ulster Canal on St Patrick’s Day, 30 hours after the final confirmed sighting of her.
Her dad and mom highlighted the police’s failure to retrieve CCTV shortly sufficient and advised BBC Highlight they’re counting on a review of the case ordered by the Garda Commissioner in October.
Gardaí stated the evaluation just isn’t a re-investigation however is to ascertain whether or not there are any extra traces of enquiry.
Julieanne LynchMs Lynch, who’s initially from Gilford, had travelled to Monaghan to stick with her boyfriend at his household house after his brother died.
Within the early hours of Saturday 16 March, she was on her approach house from an evening out along with her boyfriend and his buddies.
The final confirmed sighting of Ms Lynch was exterior a nationwide faculty about 400 yards from a bridge over the canal the place she was discovered 30 hours later.
Eight months later, Julieanne Lynch stated she nonetheless has questions on what occurred each through the night time out and when her daughter was going house to her boyfriend’s home.
“There’s no clarification and there’s a variety of discrepancies,” she added. “And I simply discover it so unusual that, you recognize, eight months on, these solutions nonetheless haven’t been given to us.”
A key query within the case is whether or not Ms Lynch walked off on her personal from the nationwide faculty in the direction of the bridge.
Her father has advised BBC Highlight that CCTV from the encompassing space, which could have answered that query, was not secured shortly sufficient after her demise.
“Anyone is aware of the primary 24 hours is essential in any investigation,” stated Sean Lynch.
“I hold saying with the CCTV, there was CCTV there – if it was received to on time it will definitively show if Kelly walked on her personal, she ran, or if she even glided by in any respect.”
The Highlight investigation has raised additional questions concerning the Garda investigation, together with over the CCTV and whether or not the bridge was correctly preserved as a doable crime scene.
Testing for blood
The Lynch household are additionally sad with what they noticed because the impolite and dismissive perspective of a senior officer within the case.
When their daughter’s garments had been returned to them, they questioned small crimson marks on her sneakers considering they may have been her bloodstains or another person’s.
Sean Lynch stated: “After I requested the senior investigating officer about it he advised me: ‘Positive in case you assume it’s blood why didn’t you get it examined your self?’
“And once I put it to them on the assembly, he stated: ‘What I stated was positive you’re entitled to get it examined your self.’”
“Including the phrase ‘entitled’ doesn’t make it any much less hurtful.”
A senior Garda officer apologised to the Lynch household for the remark.
Gardaí advised BBC Information NI it was helping an inquest, co-operating with a Garda Ombudsman investigation and conducting the evaluation of its authentic investigation.
It stated that as a result of these processes had been ongoing it couldn’t make any detailed public remark.
It additionally stated it was conscious of a major quantity of misinformation concerning the case circulating on social media.
The peer evaluation of the case is being led by a senior investigating officer exterior Monaghan and the encompassing areas.
The Lynch household have stated their daughter’s garments are being returned to them as a part of the evaluation.
Sean Lynch stated his household at the moment are counting on the officer main the evaluation.
He added: “I’m hoping that this can be a very skilled officer, a detective, that he’ll have the ability to take a look at it from his years of expertise and see discrepancies. That’s all we’ve wished from the very begin.”
Highlight: Kelly – The Physique Beneath the Bridge shall be on BBC iPlayer on Tuesday morning and broadcast on BBC One Northern Eire that night time at 22.40.
