Letters were found night Toni Marie died – but not shown to her family for 71 days

The night Toni Marie Kenny died, her mother, Tracey Monaghan, followed the ambulance to the hospital with her brother-in-law. Therefore, she did not know, and was not informed, that An Garda Síochána had taken any items from their home.

She understands why they needed to, and why they did – but not why she wasn’t told, especially since, crucially, the belongings taken included five letters written to family members, and the phone which turned out to contain a note for Toni Marie’s brother Michael. That issue particularly upsets Tracey, as for those 18 months before the gardaí discovered the note for Michael on Toni Marie’s phone, he grappled with the hurt he felt at not being among those to whom she had written letters.

“In the days that followed, desperate for any sign she may have left behind, I searched our home. I hoped she might have left a message – her last words, something to hold on to,” says Tracey.

At the garda station, where she went to enquire if gardaí had found anything, Tracey was told the case was assigned to a particular garda – but he was not there, and it took “multiple attempts”, before she was able to get in contact with him.

That first contact did not happen until February 8 of 2024 – seven weeks and four days after Toni Marie’s death.

During that meeting, Tracey shared her concern that Toni Marie might have been pushed into taking her own life: Toni Marie had previously spoken to her mother about Coco’s Law, which criminalises online abuse and cyberbullying. Just two weeks before her death, she had explained it in detail to Tracey. She had been bullied in the past, and after her passing, Tracey began to wonder: ‘Did she tell me this because she was being bullied?’.

After the meeting, Tracey wrote the first of several letters to the gardaí asking that Toni Marie’s phone be examined.

“I asked that the contents be accessed, not only to assist the investigation, but to give us a chance to see her photos, hear her voice again, and perhaps find some answers or comfort,” she says.

At that point, the letters Toni Marie left behind had still not been shown to her family.

Tracey attended at the station on February 25 to make her statement. It was only on that date that she was given copies of Toni Marie’s goodbye letters – a full 71 days after her daughter’s passing.

At that point, Toni Marie’s phone was also being returned to Tracey – but Tracey declined to accept it on the grounds that the garda assigned to the case told her that it had not been examined.

“I pleaded with him to have her mobile phone forensically examined,” she says, so the garda, as requested, retained the device.

Subsequent to that meeting, Tracey continued to send letters asking if Toni Marie’s phone had been forensically examined; if it contained messages that could have caused her distress or harm, and if any messages on the phone met the threshold for criminal offences under Coco’s Law.

“I received no clear answers. I was told there were technical difficulties accessing the phone due to the PIN (Personal Identification Number).”

Finally, in March of this year – 15 months after Toni Marie’s death – she was informed that a garda sergeant was now examining the phone.

“I sent another letter on May 14 [2025] requesting an update, due to ongoing delays and lack of communication. On 16 May, I received an acknowledgment that the examination was complete, and [the sergeant] would contact me. I tried multiple times to reach [the sergeant].

“Eventually, on June 16 [2025], I got a call back from [the garda assigned to the case] informing me [the sergeant] was on annual leave.”

On June 19, 2025, Tracey finally got to meet with the sergeant who examined the phone: “I explained how deeply we had been affected by being kept from Toni Marie’s goodbye letter for 71 days. I also shared how much Michael had suffered without receiving any message.”

At that point came the bombshell announcement: the sergeant revealed that Toni Marie had in fact left a note for Michael on her mobile phone.

That was a full 18 months and three days after her death.

The sergeant also said that in his examination of the phone, he had not seen any messages he considered harmful. Tracey pleaded with him to specifically review the messages from the two weeks before Toni Marie’s death, and when next she spoke with him – on June 23 of this year – he explained to her that many messages had been deleted and could not be recovered.

He stated the inquest would proceed on 30 June, 2025.

Tracey arrived at the coroner’s court not just to hear a verdict, but to speak. She read aloud her own recommendations for reform – calling for clear timelines, a formal family liaison officer, and better communication from gardaí in the critical days and weeks after a sudden death.

The coroner supported many of her proposals and criticised the lack of empathy shown by gardaí. He backed the appointment of a divisional liaison figure to ensure bereaved families are not left in the dark.

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