A tightknit community is in shock - as gardai probe if the discovery of a body in a rural home is linked to a fatal road accident that happened a short time later.
The alarm was raised at 6.20am on Thursday when a man's body was found by a relative in his home in rural Co Monaghan.
The grim discovery was made at Broomfield near Castleblayney. Sources said there were indications that the property had been ransacked.
Gardai are treating the man's death as suspicious - sources said there are indications the middle aged man died a violent death.
It’s also understood that another man who was in the house when the relative arrived was confronted – and then fled the scene.
Gardai are trying to establish if the man who fled the scene was the same person who was killed in a road smash in Toome, a few miles away.
Sources said the man who was killed in the road smash outside Castleblayney matches a rough description given to gardai of the suspect who was disturbed at the scene of the attack in which another man's body was found.
That man was struck by a vehicle on the N53, the main Castleblayney to Dundalk Road at around 6.45am.
Gardai have sealed off the scene of the discovery of the man’s body – as well as the location where the other man died in the road traffic accident.
Gardai say they are investigating all the circumstances of the man’s death.
Locals in the tight-knit community of Broomfield in Monaghan where this morning’s events took place have spoken of their shock.
The man who was killed in his own home was well-known in the area – but locals said he was very quiet.
“He kept a low profile,” one local said.
“It’s hard to believe something like this would happen here, it is a very quiet and peaceful area.
“People were shocked when they heard what happened.”
The local man added: "We heard about the crash first and assumed it was just an accident. But then the new filtered out about the man’s death.
“It came as a horrible shock to everyone.”
Garda Technical Bureau experts from Dublin have arrived at the scene of the death of the man at the house.
Gardai said a post mortem will be conducted, the results of which will determine the course of the investigation.
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