Hunch leads to discovery of Cloneen couples next of kin

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A researching company says they only had a hunch to go off when trying to find the next of kin of a couple in Tipperary who passed away.

Nicholas Smith and his wife Hilary were found dead at their home in Cloneen after not being seen in the area for 18 months.

The couple were originally from the UK and had very few close friends and relatives here in Ireland.

Padraic Grennan is from Erin Research, which works to alert the next of kin in the event of a tragic death.

He managed to get in touch with relatives by using just their birth certificates.

“The challenge we had here was that we didn’t have the exact dates of birth of each individual.

“Really at that stage you’re working off a hunch – the dates of birth have been verified to us since so a hunch as it transpired was correct.

“With that then we managed to track down the next of kin of each individual.”