DOCUMENTARY SCREENED ON DEATH OF KELLY LYNCH IN MONAGHAN TOWN
A documentary on the death in Monaghan Town in March of Kelly Lynch from Co Down was screened on BBC Northern Ireland on Tuesday evening last. The Spotlight programme examined the case of the 23- year-old whose body was recovered from the Ulster Canal in the Mullaghmatt area on St Patrick’s Day, 30 hours after she disappeared. The last confirmed sighting of her was when she made her way home with some friends and her boyfriend in the early hours of Saturday, March 16. Kelly’s parents, Julieanne and Sean Lynch, have always questioned the Garda investigation into their daughter’s death and last month Garda Commissioner Drew Harris ordered a review of the case on their behalf.
Gardaí say the original investigation is still active and the review is an examination to see if there are any potential additional lines of enquiry. Ms Lynch, who was originally from Gilford, had travelled to Monaghan to stay with her boyfriend at his family home after his brother died. The last confirmed sighting of Ms Lynch was outside a national school about 400 yards from a bridge over the canal where she was found 30 hours later. Julieanne Lynch told the Spotlight programme that she still has questions about what happened both during the night out and when her daughter was going home to her boyfriend’s house. “There’s no clarification and there’s a lot of discrepancies,” she added. “And I just find it so strange that, you know, eight months on, those answers still have not been given to us.”
Kelly Lynch’s family have erected posters in Monaghan in the hopes of securing more information Her father told BBC Spotlight that CCTV from the surrounding area, which might have answered that question, was not secured quickly enough after her death. “Anybody knows the first 24 hours is crucial in any investigation,” said Sean Lynch. “I keep saying with the CCTV, there was CCTV there – if it was got to on time it would definitively prove if Kelly walked on her own, she ran, or if she even went by at all.”
The Lynch family said they were also unhappy with what they saw as “the rude and dismissive attitude of a senior officer in the case.” Gardaí told the BBC that they were assisting an inquest, cooperating with a Garda Ombudsman investigation and conducting the review of its original investigation. Gardaí said that because these processes were ongoing it couldn’t make any detailed public comment. They added that they were aware of a significant volume of misinformation about the case circulating on social media.
The peer review of the case is being led by a senior investigating officer outside Monaghan and the surrounding regions. The Lynch family have said their daughter’s clothes are being returned to them as part of the review. Sean Lynch said his family are now relying on the officer leading the review. He added: “I’m hoping that this is a very experienced officer, a detective, that he will be able to look at it from his years of experience and see discrepancies. That’s all we’ve wanted from the very start.”
