Gardaí Open Murder Probe After Deliberate House Fire Kills 4-Year-Old and 60-Year-Old in Offaly

An Garda Síochána (Gardaí) have launched a murder investigation after a house fire in Castleview Park, Edenderry, County Offaly, on Saturday, Dec. 6, left two people dead and a third seriously injured.

Emergency services — including Offaly Fire and Rescue Service, the National Ambulance Service and An Garda Síochána — responded to the blaze at the residence at about 7:45 p.m. Local officers and firefighters extinguished the fire and discovered the bodies of 4-year-old Tadhg Farrell and 60-year-old Mary Holt in a downstairs room of the house.

A woman in her 50s was taken to hospital with serious injuries; local reporting indicates she is believed to be the child’s grandmother and that Holt was the boy’s great-aunt. Authorities have not released further details on the injured woman’s condition.

"We believe the fire was deliberately started," Superintendent Liam Geraghty said at a press briefing. He described the incident as "a reckless, callous and murderous attack on a family home" and said investigators were actively searching for possible suspects.

The property has been sealed as a crime scene and is being examined by the Garda Technical Bureau. Postmortem examinations on the two deceased will be carried out at a later date. The investigation is being coordinated from an incident room at Turbo Garda station under the direction of a senior investigating officer, and a family liaison officer has been appointed to support the victims' relatives.

Local reporting in The Irish Times says Gardaí suspect a petrol bomb may have been thrown into the house and that the victims were trapped in the downstairs room when the blaze took hold. That outlet also reports investigators are exploring possible links to criminal activity in the drug trade; those lines of inquiry are being actively pursued by police.

Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan said authorities will "relentlessly pursue the violent and dangerous criminals responsible for this murderous attack," according to The Irish Times. An Garda Síochána told PEOPLE it could not provide further updates at the time of contact. The investigation remains ongoing.