Inquest into death of Annie Heyneman held in Cavan

The inquest into the death of Annie Heyneman (55) at her home near Ballyconnell in 2025 was held in Cavan yesterday (Wednesday).

THE inquest into the death of Annie Heyneman at her home in Kilnavart, Ballyconnell on January 11, 2025, was held at Cavan Courthouse yesterday (Wednesday).

Members of Mrs Heyneman's family including some of her children, her sisters and brother attended the legal hearing but her husband, Henk, was not present.

The jury inquest was presided over by County Coroner for Cavan, Dr Mary Flanagan. Two paramedics, a member of the North-Western Garda Armed Support Unit (ASU), a firefighter and three gardaí all gave evidence.

The emergency first responders all gave similar evidence of responding to a call of a stabbing incident at a domestic premises in Kilnavart, Ballyconnell, on the night of January 11, 2025.

The alarm was raised by Henk Heyneman who had gone to his neighbours' house "covered in blood" claiming his son, Danny Heyneman, had "gone crazy" and attacked him and his wife with a knife, which had a 30cm blade.

Reading from Henk Heyneman's deposition, Gda Sandra Waldon said shortly after he went to his bedroom to turn in for the night on January 11, 2025, Henk Heyneman said he heard a noise from the kitchen where his wife, Annie, was with their son and he thought: ‘That’s not right’ and went up to the kitchen to see for himself what was happening.

He met Danny holding a kitchen knife with a blade about 30cms long. Danny, he said, was a trained chef and had his own knives.

“He stabbed me I think, two or three times,” Gda Waldron read from Mr Heyneman’s deposition, “When he attacked me, his eyes were massive.”

Mr Heyneman observed his wife lying on the living room floor and she was “not moving”. Danny followed his father to the bedroom and, fearing he was going to continue stabbing at him, Mr Heyneman went to his next-door neighbours' house telling them: “Don’t go near the house or he will get you too.”

At 21:24, the Heynemans' neighbours called for emergency services and the Garda Armed Support Unit arrived first with personnel from the Ambulance Service, Cavan County Fire Service and local gardaí arriving on the scene at around the same time a short time later.

A garda from ASU described how thick white smoke was billowing from the Heyneman's home, which made visibility poor and, fearing the perpetrator was still inside the property, they deployed a distraction device.

Once inside, officers discovered Mrs Heyneman's body lying face down in the living room - two to three metres from a wood-burning stove. The embers of the stove appeared to have been dragged onto the floor and some nearby items had caught fire.

While gardaí and members of ASU transferred Mrs Heyneman to the front porch of the house, firefighters extinguished the fire. Shortly after she was transferred from the house, all the emergency professionals recounted how Mrs Heyneman lost consciousness.

Paramedics, gardaí and a firefighter all performed CPR on Mrs Heyneman for over 56 minutes but she was pronounced deceased at 23:08.

The emergency services personnel who attended the scene and gave depositions at the inquest said Mrs Heyneman had lost a lot of blood from stab wounds to her neck and elsewhere on her body.

When each of the emergency first responders finished giving their evidence, Annie Heyneman’s family members and the jury were asked if they wanted to ask any questions to clarify the facts but they declined.

The last professional to give evidence to the inquest was Professor Linda Mulligan who carried out a post mortem on Mrs Heyneman two days after the incident.

She asked the family if it was acceptable to them that she just read the conclusions of her report and they agreed.

Professor Mulligan said she found Mrs Heyneman had been stabbed at least 14 times, mostly around the trunk, back and neck. The largest of the wounds was 3.9cms in length and the deepest wound she found was 20cms.

Mrs Heyneman’s left internal jugular vein and the left vein under her collar bone were completely severed, Professor Mulligan said.

Annie Heyneman also showed signs of superficial defence wounds, the pathologist said. The 55-year-old had no significant underlying health conditions at the time of her death.

“Death occurred in my opinion in this case from hypovolemic shock caused by stab wounds to the head, neck and trunk,” Professor Mulligan concluded.

After all evidence was heard, the County Coroner for Cavan, Dr Mary Flanagan, returned a verdict of unlawful killing.

“The cause of Annie Heyneman’s death is hypovolemic shock caused by stab wounds to the head, neck and trunk and a verdict of unlawful killing is returned,” Dr Flanagan concluded.

To Henk Heyneman, Annie’s children, her sisters, brother and their partners, Dr Flanagan expressed her sincere condolences “on the most tragic death” of Mrs Heyneman.

A garda inspector present for proceedings said he and his members would like to be associated with that sentiment.

During his trial in April, Danny Heyneman (32) pleaded guilty to the murder of his mother, Annie, at their family home in January 2025 and the attempted murder of his father, Henk.

The life sentence he was handed down for the murder of his mother must be served after the six-year sentence he received for the attack on his father.