Gardaí in Cork are keeping an open mind on a possible motive for the killing of a 74-year-old man who was found with his arms and legs tied in his house on the northside of the city on Tuesday.
Gardaí under Supt Con Cadogan of Gurranabraher station began a murder inquiry yesterday after a postmortem by Assistant State Pathologist, Dr Margaret Bolster, confirmed that Christopher Hornibrook, known as Gussie, died as a result of foul play.
While gardaí refrained from outlining the detailed findings of the postmortem, it is understood Mr Hornibrook had no visible sign of injury and may have died from suffocation or a heart attack during suffocation.
A Garda source confirmed that Mr Hornibrook, a bachelor, was found with both his hands and his legs tied in a downstairs room of the house at Templeacre Avenue in Gurranabraher, where he had lived for more than 30 years.
Gardaí are investigating the possibility that Mr Hornibrook may have been tied up by raiders searching for money, but he lived a frugal existence and they do not believe that he would have had much cash in the house for anyone to steal.
There was no sign of forced entry to the two-storey local authority terraced house, but gardaí said Mr Hornibrook never locked his front door and it would have been quite easy for an intruder to enter the house and the downstairs room where he slept.
A forensic examination of the house by experts from the Garda Technical Bureau in Dublin was continuing yesterday and is expected to conclude at the house later today as officers search for clues as to who was responsible for his death.
Meanwhile, uniformed officers and detectives carried out door- to-door inquiries in the area yesterday and locals confirmed that they had last seen Mr Hornibrook alive at about 9pm on Monday night, when he was seen walking along Templeacre Avenue.
Mr Hornibrook, whose body was discovered at about lunch-hour on Tuesday by his older brother, Bobby, who called to him daily, was a familiar figure in Gurranabraher, where he had lived for the past 40 years or more.
Last night Supt Cadogan appealed to the public for assistance in trying to identify his killer or killers. He said Mr Hornibrook was a very trusting individual and whoever had killed him had "targeted a particularly vulnerable member of society".
Gardaí were last night keeping an open mind on whether whoever tied up Mr Hornibrook may have had local knowledge, as Templeacre Avenue is not a main thoroughfare in the Gurranabraher area and would not attract general passing traffic.
Yesterday, neighbours in Templeacre Avenue spoke of their shock at the killing, with one woman, Etta Nugent, saying that Mr Hornibrook was well known in the area and was regularly seen getting up early in the morning to feed the birds in his garden.
"You'd see him up at half-six or seven o'clock in the morning throwing out bread for the birds . . . you'd see him go up to the chipper in Churchfield for his lunch and he used to get scones down in Centra.
"People tried to get him to take meals on wheels, but he sent them away. The only thing he'd ask you for if you met him would be a few cigarettes. He was always bad with the nerves, but he was harmless and wouldn't hurt a soul," said Mrs Nugent.
Mr Hornibrook's death has brought back reminders in the area of the death of 73-year-old Margaret Murphy, who died from a heart attack after she was tied up by two men during a robbery at her home in nearby Barrett's Buildings on August 1st, 1997.
