Published: Wednesday, 17th February, 2010 6:57pm

Murder ruled out in 'suspicious' Mullingar death

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The late Tony Kelly

The exact cause of death of the popular young Strabane man, Tony Kelly, who was found dead at his home in Mullingar on Monday, won't be clear until the Inquest into his death is held.

Initially, murder had been considered a possibility after the 31 year old's body was found in the communal hallway of the apartment block at Grove Court in which he was living.

However, after state pathologist, Professor Marie Cassidy, carried out a post mortem on the remains on Tuesday at the Midland Regional Hospital at Mullingar, investigating Gardaí announced that they were not seeking anyone else in connection with the death.

Superintendent John Gantly said that the Gardaí would, however, be carrying out enquiries in preparation for the coroner's court.

The area around the deceased man's apartment at Grove Court - an apartment complex at Grove Street in Mullingar - was sealed off on Monday morning, after Gardaí were called to the scene by a resident of the apartments, who found Mr. Kelly's body in the shared hallway shortly after 7 a.m.

Scene of crime investigators and forensic teams were called to the scene to examine the surroundings, and a call was made by the Gardaí to the state pathologist, Professor Marie Cassidy's office, requesting that she attend at the scene, to examine the body, on the basis that the death appeared suspicious.

As word filtered out as to the identity of the deceased man, there was some shock. He was well-known locally, having worked most recently at the Spar shop in Dominick Street, and prior to that, at Dunnes Stores in Harbour Place, where he was a manager in the grocery department.

Mr. Kelly comes from a close-knit Catholic family from Strabane.

His parents, Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Kelly, are understood to be distraught over the death, and their other son, Tony's brother, travelled to Mullingar on Monday night, when word broke of the tragedy. The family had been through drama seven years ago, when in a "tiger raid", Tony's mother and father were taken hostage, and Tony himself was forced to bring the robbers to the Safeway store (now Asda), in Strabane, where he was working at the time.

The Kelly family are well-known in Strabane. Hugh Kelly works in the upmarket Fir Trees hotel, which is owned by his brother, Johnny, Tony's uncle.

Another uncle, Seamus Kelly, is a highly placed civil servant, working with the Northern Ireland Housing Executive.