Sr Philomena Lyons was in the wrong place at the wrong time. That's according to Dr Marie Cassidy the former pathologist who examined the nun who was murdered in Ballbay 10 days before Christmas in 2001
Nobody knows why Kealen Herron killed Sr Philomena Lyons on a freezing cold morning in Ballybay some 23 years ago and might never be known.
But Ms Cassidy says unfortunately for Sr Lyons it was about being in the wrong place at the time. Mr Herron strangled one of Ballybay's most loved citizens leaving the Monaghan town reeling to this day.
Kealen Herron, then aged 19, had not stayed in the family home two miles from the convent of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart the night before the murder. He'd had a few drinks the night before and had got a lift to the local shop a few hundred yards from the convent at 8am on December 15th
At the same time Sr Philomena had finished her breakfast and was preparing to take the bus to Dublin to attend a 100th birthday party in Blackrock. Marie Cassidy says she never got to celebrate that party with family.
