Victims of fatal shooting to be laid to rest in County Clare

The funeral service for the mother and her two children murdered in County Fermanagh last week will be held on Saturday.

Veterinary surgeon Vanessa Whyte, 45, her 14-year-old son James Rutledge and 13-year-old daughter Sara Rutledge were shot dead in Maguiresbridge last week.

A funeral Mass is to take place in the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Ms Whyte’s hometown of Barefield, County Clare, at 12:00 local time.

They will then be buried together in Templemaley Cemetery.

Mourners attending the funeral have been asked to wear bright and cheerful colours in their memory.

On Friday, hundreds gathered in the village to pay respect to Ms Whyte and her children as they lay in repose together.

Fr Brendan Quinlivan from the Diocese of Killaloe, said there has been such an “incredible sense of sympathy and empathy and outpouring of grief for all of Vanessa’s family”.

“There are no words that are adequate to describe the depth of feeling and the sense of tragedy that is being felt by Vanessa’s family, but also by the community,” he said.

He spoke about Vanessa Whyte and that when she was younger, living in Barefield, she was “a very vivacious and lively young person”.

He added that her career as a veterinary surgeon is “a reflection of the generosity of spirit that would have been very much part of her and her family, and that she received from her family”.

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”.