Mourners to pay respects to murdered mum and children before funeral

People in County Clare will gather later to pay their respects to a mother and her two children who were murdered in County Fermanagh.

Vanessa Whyte, 45, her 14-year-old son James Rutledge and her 13-year-old daughter Sara Rutledge died after being shot in their home in Maguiresbridge..

During a service of removal in the village on Wednesday, the priest, Fr Raymond Donnelly, told mourners the victims had their lives “taken in an unspeakable way”.

They will lie in repose together in the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Ms Whyte’s home village of Barefield from 15:00 until 19:00 BST.

There will then be a private removal on Saturday morning, with the funeral cortege arriving at the chapel for a funeral Mass beginning at 12:00.

Ms Whyte, James and Sara will be buried together in Templemaley Cemetery.

On Sunday, people gathered in the County Clare chapel for a prayer service, during which parish priest Fr Tom Fitzpatrick described the killings as an “unspeakable tragedy”.

Emergency services were called to the home of Ms Whyte and her children on the Drummeer Road on 23 July, a rural area about 75 miles (121km) west of Belfast and about eight miles from the county’s largest town, Enniskillen.

Two of the victims were declared dead at the scene and a third died later that day in South West Acute Hospital.

Hours after the attack, police said a man from the same household was in hospital with gunshot wounds.

Following the shootings, police said a suspected triple murder and attempted suicide was one line of inquiry for detectives.

On Monday night, the man suspected the killings, 43-year-old Ian Rutledge, died in hospital.

Detectives investigating the shooting also reiterated their appeal for “anyone with information, no matter how insignificant it may seem, to come forward”.