Mother and children to be laid to rest
THE mother and her two children, who were murdered in County Fermanagh last week, are to be buried in County Clare on Saturday.
A service removal is underway this morning at St Mary's Church in Maguiresbridge.
Before Vanessa Whyte, James and Sara Rutledge, make their final journey west, their “many friends” and neighbours in Fermanagh have an opportunity to bid them farewell.
Vanessa (45) and her children James (14) and Sara (13) Rutledge were killed in a shooting incident at their family home in Maguiresbridge last Wednesday.
Their husband and father, Ian Rutledge (43), died in hospital from injuries sustained in the same incident on Monday evening.
Last week, police said a suspected triple murder and attempted suicide was one line of inquiry for detectives.
Vanessa, who is originally from the village of Barefield, near Ennis, worked as a vet for the Department of Agriculture in the North. She had made Maguiresbridge her home where she, James and Sara were actively involved in their local hurling and gaelic football clubs.
Vanessa and her children had planned to go to Clare this week for a holiday.
Funeral arrangements for Vanessa and her children were announced on Monday night and include a church service in Fermanagh before the removal of their remains to Vanessa’s home village in Clare for funeral service on Saturday.
According to the funeral directors Vanessa, James and Sara will “lie in repose together” in The Church of The Immaculate Conception Barefield on Friday, August 1. Funeral mass for the three will be held in the same church at 12 noon on Saturday.
“Following Mass Vanessa, James and Sara will be laid to rest together in Templemaley Cemetery,” the funeral directors say in an online post.
The family home is strictly private at all times.
People attending funeral mass are asked to wear “bright and cheerful colours in their memory” and if anyone wants to make a donation in lieu of flowers they are asked to do so to Women’s Aid.
The post ends with the message: “Vanessa, James, and Sara will be forever loved and remembered by the Rutledge and Whyte families and their many friends. Rest In Peace.”
Their funeral mass is being live-streamed here.
Under the funeral directors’ post many people offered their condolences to the Whtre and Rutledge families with one person saying: “Deepest sympathy to the Whyte and Rutledge families! Such a sad ending to what should have been a very fulfilled future ahead for them all! As we pass your home each day. We will remember you all. Not for the way you left this world but how you all lived and what you all achieved in your short lives!”