Galway family wants German death case reopened

The family of a Galway man, found dead in Germany back in December 2010, says that they have concrete evidence that he was murdered.

Additional pressure is now being put on the German police to open a murder investigation rather than treating the death as suicide.

Matthew Fitzpatrick (34) from Portumna was found hanging in his apartment in Mannheim but his family believes that this could have been staged.

Tragic Matthew, it was revealed in a post mortem carried out when his body was returned to Ireland, that he had a blow to the back of his head and a serious lower back injury.

He was due to arrive home in Ireland two days after his body was discovered in the apartment in Mannheim. He worked there as an interface engineer for a Cork based company.

A post mortem was carried out in Germany after which the local police concluded his death was suicide but his family ordered a second autopsy to be carried out on his repatriation to Ireland – it revealed a number of discrepancies.

The Deputy State Pathologist identified numerous injuries to Matthew’s body including a blunt force injury to the back of his head and a deep injury to his lower back – injuries which were not revealed in the original post mortem.

It is because of this and the fact that there were numerous contusions and abrasions to Matthew’s face and body that the Fitzpatrick family are demanding that the investigation into his death be reopened.

His brother Patrick Fitzpatrick said that the German police tried to build a case of suicide rather than focusing on the possibility of a murder having taken place.

see full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.