Murder-Suicide Research conducted by Forensics Student
Research conducted by an IT Sligo student has shown that more than half of all victims of murder-suicide in the last 12 years were children who were killed by a parent.
The research was conducted by Ciara Byrne, a student on the BSc in Forensic Analysis and Investigation course who’s doing her work placement this summer with the Deputy State Pathologist, Dr Michael Curtis.
Ciara examined the cases of murder-suicide where an individual kills someone else before killing themselves, either immediately or within a short period of time.
A study of records from the State Pathologists’ Office showed that there were 19 incidents in the 12 year period from 2001 to 2013, which claimed the lives of 27 innocent victims.
The study – called ‘Dyadic Deaths in Ireland’ – showed that at least one case occurs every year, and in the past 12 years 46 people lost their lives due to the phenomenon.
Dr Curtis described her research as a “fantastic” piece of work.
Ciara developed an interest in the area of forensics from watching the popular TV programme, CSI. Now going in to her fourth and final year of the BSc in Forensic Analysis and Investigation in, she says choosing the course is the best thing she’s ever done: “I love the course. I put it down as my number one on m CAO and I was so happy to get it. I love Sligo and I can’t wait to get back to it after the summer break. Moving to Sligo for the course was the best thing I’ve ever done.”
Commenting on her study, Deputy State Pathologist Dr Michael Curtis said: “I think [murder suicide] is something that has come to our attention as a regular phenomenon over the last decade or so. I’m sure it has happened sporadically before, but the frequency and regularity of what we’re seeing seems to be a phenomenon of recent years. We’re seeing it on a regular basis. That’s what this research has shown quite clearly. They are very tragic cases indeed,” he said.
A majority of the murder-suicide cases, 18 in all, happened in rural Ireland while just one shook Dublin. There was an average of one case a year but that number spiked to three in 2001 and peaked at four in 2007.
In her study, Ciara found that alcohol and drugs had no real factor in the deaths that have occurred.
In all nine incidents where children were killed, the perpetrator was a parent. In 79% of cases, the perpetrator was male, and 37% of the 27 victims over the 12-and-a-half year period were adult women.
In all four cases where the killer was female, the victim was her child or children, whereas the majority of male perpetrators – 33% – only killed their female partners. Another 20% killed children and the same number killed their friends while 7% killed ex-partners and another 7% took their parents’ lives.
When she graduates with her degree, Ciara hopes to undertake a Masters in Forensic Toxicology.
To find out more about IT Sligo’s BSc in Forensic Analysis and Investigation click here.
Some of the information in this article is taken from an article by journalist Georgina O’Halloran in the Irish Examiner. Read the full story here.