TWO men held in connection with the murder of 21-year-old Robert Sheehan have been released without charge, and a file is being prepared for the DPP. Sheehan, aged 21 and said to have been haunted by his involvement in the petrol attack on a car that Gavin and Millie Murray were injured in, was shot dead outside a Bunratty hotel as he attended his brother’s wedding. He had been shot five times in the head and body, and died at the Mid Western Regional Hospital two days later.
The investigation, which is ongoing, saw up to 100 gardai deployed to find his masked killers after a gun and discharged ammunition were found in open ground near the scene. Over 300 statements have been taken.
Last weekend, Robert Sheehan was laid to rest and his family appealed for calm in the wake of the shooting.
Sheehan, with a criminal record, was known to gardai for his part in the arson attack on a parked car in 2006, where the two Murray children, Gavin and Millie, suffered extensively horrific injuries.
The 21-year-old, 15 at the time of the incident, acted as a lookout for two others who carried out the arson, and was sentenced to two years detention in St Patrick’s Institution in 2007.
Sheehan was gunned down outside the hotel in the early hours of the morning after he left the celebrations to smoke a cigarette.
Gardai believed that the murder may have been connected to an earlier stabbing incident in July in Moyross. They also believe that the gunman and other accomplices may have fled the country since the murder. Shannon Gardai are continuing with their investigation into what they believe is a revenge killing.
