The small west Wicklow village of Grange Con was stunned yesterday by the news of the violent deaths of three members of the same family.
Parish priest of Baltinglass Fr Tommy Dillon, said everyone was "really really shocked. They are devastated by this great great tragedy."
The parish of Baltinglass includes Grange Con and Fr Dillon got a phone call shortly before lunch yesterday. When he went to the house: "I said prayers and commended these three lovely parishioners to their God".
The absence of the couple in their 80s and their son in his 40s was first noticed when they failed to attend 11 am Mass in Grange Con on Sunday. They were regular churchgoers, the father sang in the choir, the mother was a church reader and the son was involved in the taking up of the church collections.
When they had not collected their paper from the local shop a neighbour called to the house yesterday morning and discovered the three bodies.
The large two-storey farmhouse stands on a rise about 3km from the village itself. On the road leading into Grangecon there are just six houses near each other. One of the neighbours, Aisling Sunderland, said she knew the family to say hello to.
"We'd see him walking the dog and she would walk the dog in the evenings as well", she said.
She added: "You would hear of these things happening in other places. There was a tragedy like this in Wexford a while ago but when it's in your own area it's something else."
Her next door neighbour, Ned Byrne, agreed. "It's totally shocking. You hear about it in other places, but not here."
The son, a welder by training, worked as an artist sculpting horses' heads and other animals from metal. He worked from outbuildings, just 100 yards from the main farmhouse.
"He was a brainy kind of a chap. He was into the environment and agriculture and that," said another neighbour, Tommy Byrne.
He added: "They were people who kept to themselves. I would see them at mass on Sundays and walking the dog."
The elderly couple were both retired, he from farming and she from teaching in nearby Dunlavin. They had both been keen golfers. He was president of Baltinglass Golf Club in 1997 and she was ladies' president in 1994.
Yesterday evening the State Pathologist, Dr Marie Cassidy, attended the scene which remained closed off all day and late into the night. As neighbours drove past the house on the quiet country road they slowed and some stopped to talk to gardaí at the scene.
The village with a population of about 250 people has just two pubs, one shop and a church. The local post office had closed down some time ago. The family have not been formally identified while relatives are being contacted. These include the couple's two daughters, one of whom lives in Britain and another is understood to live in the Limerick area.
The farm's land was let out to two neighbouring farmers. One of the neighbours described it as a crop farm and that the family also had a few sheep and goats.
Funeral ceremonies are expected to take place before the weekend.
Fr Dillon said the death of one person is a tragedy. When it is three people it is magnified to a great extent. The community is very shocked and people are lost for words, he said.
Statement from family
Relatives of the family issued the following statment last night: "The tragic deaths of Mr John Joe Sleator, his wife Mary and son Patrick, has shocked their immediate family.
The family need time to come to grips with this appalling tragedy and would ask the media to allow them some consideration and privacy so that they can deal with their grief and loss".
