The body of the daughter of a prominent Irish sports personality murdered whilst on her honeymoon in Mauritius was handed over to family members on Thursday for repatriation, an official said.
An official at the Mauritius Foreign Affairs Ministry said Michaela McAreavey's body was now in the hands of family members present on the island and confirmed it was expected to be sent back to Ireland via London on Thursday evening.
Earlier in the day, Donald Payen, a senior official with Air Mauritius, told AFP: “Everything has been done to enable the body to be transported via Britain this evening.”
The Indian Ocean island's national carrier flies to London at 10:00 pm local time (1800 GMT).
Michaela McAreavey was found by her husband John and hotel staff on Monday, strangled in their hotel room at the upmarket Legends hotel, on Mauritius' northern coast.
The death has stunned Ireland - the 27-year-old teacher and former beauty queen was the daughter of Tyrone Gaelic football boss Mickey Harte, one of Ireland's best-known sporting figures.
Police staged a reconstitution of the crime at Legends Thursday -standard procedure in all homicide and murder cases in Mauritius.
The three Legends staff were provisionally charged with murder and complicity to murder Wednesday.
One of them has admitted stealing from the McAreaveys' room.
The three accused are Avinash Treebohun, a 29-year-old room attendant and Sandip Moneaa, a 41-year-old floor supervisor, both charged with murder, and Raj Theekoy, 33, also a room attendant who is charged with complicity to murder. All three remain in police custody.
One of the three men is believed to have used an electronic key card to open the couple's room shortly before the victim died.
Mauritius police chief Dhun Iswar Rampersad told reporters Thursday that Theekoy had admitted to hearing noises from room 1205 and to having seen one of his friends coming out of the room a few minutes later, apparently “in a strange state”.
Police then questioned Treebohun and he “confessed to police that a few minutes before the victim came in they (Treebohun and Moneaa) were in the room stealing purses full of money and jewellery that were on the table,” Rampersad said.
The victim's brother Mark Harte and Brian McAreavey, the brother of the bridegroom have been on the island since Wednesday and other family members arrived Thursday.
Irish media have reported that Dublin's ambassador to South Africa Brendan McMahon has also been on the island to give consular assistance.
Mickey Harte, who has appeared distraught over his daughter's death, cancelled initial plans to come to collect the body, Tourism Minister Nando Bodha told AFP.
Officials were not able to say whether John McAreavey would also fly home Thursday.
Mauritius officials, anxious to limit the damage to its crucial tourism sector, have been at pains to emphasise that such crimes are almost unheard of on the island.
Gaelic football is the most popular sports in Ireland and top players and managers are celebrities. -
Sapa-AFP