Suspects are employees of hotel where Michaela Harte was found strangled while on honeymoon
- guardian.co.uk,
- Article history
Three men are to be charged today in Mauritius with the murder of Michaela Harte.
The suspects are all employees of the luxury hotel where the 27-year-old newlywed was staying on her honeymooon. Six people had been questioned in connection with the killing.
Harte – the daughter of Mickey Harte, a renowned sports manager in Ireland – was found strangled in her room in the Legends hotel in Grand Gaube in the north of Mauritius.
"The inquiries are progressing and three people have been arrested," said Superintendent Yoosoof Soopun, who is leading the murder investigation. "We believe we have substantial evidence to connect them to the case. They will be brought to court today where provisional charges of murder will be brought against them. They will then be remanded in custody for a week and appear again once we have completed the investigation."
Soopun said the three men were Legends hotel employees and were believed to be inside the teacher's room when she returned alone.
Police think Hart may have been attacked after disturbing a robbery.
She was found dead in the hotel room by her husband, John McAreavey. She had left him in the restaurant of the four-star hotel 45 minutes earlier to fetch biscuits.
An official from the Irish embassy in South Africa has arrived on the island to assist McAreavey. The ambassador, Brendan McMahon, will travel there today.
McAreavey asked a government minister in Mauritius to relay a message home: "I love my wife."
Mickey Harte, who is County Tyrone's Gaelic football manager, yesterday described his daughter as his "little jewel".
"This is the worst nightmare that anyone can imagine. If you think things can be bad, then you go beyond that because that is where we are," he said, as he stood with two of his three sons at his home near Ballygawley, County Tyrone.
"This is too horrible to contemplate. We are just all devastated. It is the worst of the worst and our hearts are broken.
"What a day she had on her wedding day. She was just radiant, a beautiful girl, and I just love her to bits. So does her whole family. We are so devastated."
Michaela, a former beauty queen contestant, was often by her father's side during his All-Ireland football triumphs.
The Mauritius minister of tourism and leisure, Nandcoomar Bodha, said the entire island was in mourning. "It is the first time that a murder has ever taken place in a hotel in Mauritius and the island's extremely low crime rate means this has come as a terrible shock to the whole nation," he said.
The couple arrived at the Legends hotel on Saturday, and had been due to leave next Sunday. They had spent the first part of their honeymoon in Dubai.
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