Parents question 'flawed' Garda canal death probe

Sean and Julieanne Lynch at the school where Kelly was last seen alive

The family of a County Down woman found dead in Monaghan in March have blamed what they see as a series of mistakes by Garda (Irish police) investigators for leaving them with unanswered questions about what happened.

Kelly Lynch, 23, was found in the Ulster Canal on St Patrick’s Day, 30 hours after the last confirmed sighting of her.

Her parents highlighted the police's failure to retrieve CCTV quickly enough and told BBC Spotlight they are relying on a review of the case ordered by the Garda Commissioner in October.

Gardaí said the review is not a re-investigation but is to establish whether there are any additional lines of enquiry.

Kelly Lynch was found dead at a canal in Monaghan on St Patrick's Day

Ms Lynch, who is originally from Gilford, had travelled to Monaghan to stay with her boyfriend at his family home after his brother died.

In the early hours of Saturday 16 March, she was on her way home from a night out with her boyfriend and his friends.

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.

Eight months later, Julieanne Lynch said 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.”

A key question in the case is whether Ms Lynch walked off on her own from the national school towards the bridge.

Kelly Lynch's family erected posters in Monaghan in the hopes of securing more information

Her father has 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 Spotlight investigation has raised further questions about the Garda investigation, including over the CCTV and whether the bridge was properly preserved as a possible crime scene.

Testing for blood

The Lynch family are also unhappy with what they saw as the rude and dismissive attitude of a senior officer in the case.

When their daughter’s clothes were returned to them, they questioned small red marks on her shoes thinking they might have been her bloodstains or someone else’s.

Sean Lynch said: “When I asked the senior investigating officer about it he told me: ‘Sure if you think it’s blood why didn’t you get it tested yourself?’

"And when I put it to them at the meeting, he said: ‘What I said was sure you’re entitled to get it tested yourself.’”

“Adding the word 'entitled' doesn’t make it any less hurtful."

A senior Garda officer apologised to the Lynch family for the comment.

Kelly Lynch's clothes were returned to her parents after eight days

Gardaí told BBC News NI it was assisting an inquest, co-operating with a Garda Ombudsman investigation and conducting the review of its original investigation.

It said that because these processes were ongoing it couldn’t make any detailed public comment.

It also said it was 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.”

Spotlight: Kelly – The Body Below the Bridge will be on BBC iPlayer on Tuesday morning and broadcast on BBC One Northern Ireland that night at 22.40.