Elderly couple found dead in Co Tipperary named locally

By Cate McCurry, PA

The elderly couple found dead in Co Tipperary on Monday have been named as Nicholas and Hilary Smith.

The couple were originally from England and were in their 70s and 80s. The remains of the pair may have lain undiscovered in their home for more than a year.

Post-mortem examinations on the couple were scheduled to take place on Tuesday.

The discovery was made on Monday afternoon in the townland of Cloneen, near the Tipperary-Kilkenny border.

Mr and Mrs Smith are understood to have bought the house just outside Cloneen village about 10 years ago.

According to The Irish Examiner, a local resident recently had a "gut feeling" that something was wrong, and he and another resident decided to raise the alarm and ask gardaí to do a “welfare check” on the couple.

One resident, who asked not to be named, told The Examiner: "I don’t know much about them and I have found very few people who do, or even met them and spoke to them.

"They were like ghosts. They rarely mixed, they really did keep themselves to themselves and you’d be hard-pressed to find anybody who knew them."

Gardaí said they were investigating "all circumstances".

The scene was preserved throughout Tuesday pending an examination by the Garda Technical Bureau.

The offices of the State Pathologist have been notified, gardaí said.