The families of Patricia McDonald and Carol Nolan, the Irish students who died in a house fire in Brittany on January 6th, have begun the harrowing work of coming to terms with their deaths and bringing their bodies home.
Deputy prosecutor Frédérique Dubost legally released the bodies to the families yesterday, after blood tests confirmed the diagnosis of death by asphyxiation.
"Arrangements are being made to have their bodies returned to Ireland at the earliest opportunity," said the statement which Paul Duffy, Patricia McDonald's boyfriend, read to me on the telephone. Mr Duffy said he was "over the worst of the shock" and that it helped him to travel to Lorient.
The family is understood to be discussing transport and insurance arrangements with local undertakers.
"The parents and families and friends . . . are devastated at the accidental deaths of their beautiful daughters," the statement began. It was drafted by the families, with officials from the Institute of Technology in Tallaght where the young women were third-year students. It concluded: "Both families now request the time and space to grieve and mourn their loss in private."
At 10am, nine family members, Mr Duffy and the chaplain from the Institute of Technology met police Capt Jean-Yves Le Clech, who led the investigation into the deaths. Police gave the families the women's mobile phones, which were used to identify their friends, and the jewellery they were wearing.
The Irish families listened for more than two hours to the conclusions of the autopsies and forensic examinations which were carried out with impressive speed last weekend.
At 1.30pm, the families went to the morgue at Lorient Hospital to see the bodies. At their request, they met Ms Dubost at 3 pm.
"I found them very dignified," the deputy prosecutor said. The investigation was carried out under her orders.
"They wanted to know what happened, but they were not pushy. They thanked me. It's not easy to lose one's daughter when she is 20 or 21."
Ms Dubost was displeased that details of the investigation appeared in the local press before the families were briefed by police.
"They asked me for the French articles. I told them they had no obligation to talk to the press, and that under French law they have the right to their image, that no one was allowed to take their picture without their permission.
"At 4 pm, when they left for the house in Larmor Plage where the girls died, I sent a police unit with them, to break the seals, to light up the house with torches and to block off the area so no one could bother them.
"I told the police if they saw any photographers in the area they should take their film away."
Blood tests showed lethal levels of carbon monoxide, caused by a fire believed to have been started by a dropped cigarette.
"I think they were sleeping when the fire started, they died in their sleep," Ms Dubost said. "Knowing that it was rapid and that they were not conscious seemed to comfort the families. Their bodies were intact; there were no serious burns."
