Foul play ruled out in deaths of Irish woman and partner in Spain

GERARD COUZENS

Autopsies on the Irish woman and her partner found dead in their Spanish holiday villa jacuzzi have ruled out foul play.

Tests are continuing to try to determine how exactly the couple lost their lives, but post-mortems have endorsed the idea they were the victims of a freak “chain-reaction” accident.

On Thursday it emerged that Civil Guard investigators were focusing on the theory that one of the pair died trying to save the other in the hot tub at the hilltop property on an exclusive residential estate in Cullera near the east coast Spanish city of Valencia.

Thomasina McArdle, from Co Monaghan, and New Zealand national Patrick Tobin were staying at the villa with their two teenage children who discovered their bodies and raised the alarm on Tuesday afternoon.

Overnight, it emerged that forensic experts had discovered the woman died first and her partner lost his life in his desperate attempts to pull her out of the water and save her.

Tobin had small “puncture marks” on his body.

Several possibilities are still on the table about their exact cause of death, according to local press.

One possibility, according to the respected local paper Las Provincias, is that Thomasina, who was using her married name, died as a result of a suction failure in the jacuzzi’s hydrotherapy system or by a sudden health problem, and her partner could have suffered a fatal electric shock, poisoning by toxic vapours or a heart attack.

Urine, blood and tissue samples taken during the autopsies at Valencia’s Institute of Forensic Medicine have been sent to a specialist lab in Barcelona.

Completion of the tests is expected to take several weeks.

The couple’s children, aged 16 and 14, are being comforted by relatives who flew to Spain to be with them after being informed of the double tragedy.

The Civil Guard in Valencia initially said that both victims were Irish before clarifying Tobin was from New Zealand.

He reportedly did not hold an Irish passport and had lived in the UK for nearly three decades.

His family in New Zealand and the UK are being assisted by New Zealand consular authorities.

The Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed earlier this week that it is aware of the case and is providing consular assistance