Murder of Michaela McAreavey
On 10 January 2011, Michaela McAreavey, a 27‑year‑old teacher from Northern Ireland, was found strangled in the bathroom of her hotel room in Mauritius while on her honeymoon. Her killing and the subsequent investigation attracted sustained international media attention. It was reported as the first murder of a tourist in Mauritius, prompting expressions of sympathy from the Mauritian Prime Minister, Navin Ramgoolam. Two hotel employees were later tried for her murder and were acquitted by the Supreme Court of Mauritius on 12 July 2012. The handling of the investigation drew significant criticism, including allegations of police misconduct and disputes over the reliability of the evidence. Public anger intensified in July 2012 when a Mauritian newspaper published crime‑scene photographs of McAreavey's body, leading to diplomatic protests from Ireland. Further inquiries were launched in the years that followed, and the case has remained the subject of ongoing police investigation and international attention.
Victim
McAreavey, born Michaela Harte, was a 27-year-old Irish teacher from Glencull and the daughter of Tyrone Gaelic football manager Mickey Harte. She had represented Ulster at the 2004 Rose of Tralee.She was a Catholic and a member of the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association, she taught Irish and Religion at St Patrick's Academy, Dungannon, where she ran the school's "Pioneer Club" encouraging students to abstain from alcohol.
She married John McAreavey on 30 December 2010.
Murder
On 10 January 2011, McAreavey and her husband, John, had lunch at their hotel in Grand Gaube. At about 2:44 pm, she returned to their room. Investigators concluded that she was attacked on entering the room and strangled, after which her body was placed in the bath and the water turned on. Her husband discovered her soon afterwards.Investigation
Three hotel employees – Avinash Treebhoowoon, Sandeep Moonea, and Raj Theekoy – were arrested in connection with the killing. They appeared in court in Mauritius on 12 January 2011. Treebhoowoon and Mooneea were charged with McAreavey's murder, and Theekoy was charged with conspiracy to murder. DNA samples were taken from the suspects. A week later, two hotel security officers, Dassen Narayen and Seenarain Mungoo, were arrested and charged with aiding and abetting. Mungoo was released and all charges against him were dropped on 12 February 2011. Narayen was also cleared; his fingerprints were found on a towel in the room because he had handed it to McAreavey's husband when he raised the alarm.Funeral
McAreavey was brought home and a traditional Irish wake was held. Those who attended included retired bishop of Derry Edward Daly; 1992 All-Ireland winning manager Brian McEniff; GAA President Christy Cooney, Northern Ireland's First Minister and deputy First Minister, the Democratic Unionist Peter Robinson (Northern [Ireland politician)|Peter Robinson] and Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness; sports minister Nelson McCausland, enterprise minister Arlene Foster; and justice committee chairman Maurice Morrow.Her funeral took place on 17 January 2011 at St Malachy's, Ballymacilroy, the church where she had been married eleven days earlier. Thousands of mourners attended, among them President of Ireland Mary McAleese and Northern Ireland's First Minister and Deputy First Minister. People from both nationalist and unionist communities paid their respects. A simultaneous Mass was held in Mauritius, led by the island's senior priest, Father Philippe Goupille.
Trial
The trial of two hotel workers for McAreavey's murder began in Mauritius on 22 May 2012.On 6 June 2012, John McAreavey told the court that, on the day of his wife's murder, he had been handcuffed by police officers and his body examined for marks. He also said that he had seen one of the accused, Avinash Treebhoowoon, twice within a few minutes that afternoon. He explained that he had returned to the hotel room after his wife failed to come back to the restaurant, having gone to fetch biscuits to accompany their tea. He found her unconscious in the bath with the tap running, lifted her onto the floor, and attempted to revive her. A forensic expert from England reported that no DNA traces from the two accused, or from the other original suspects, were found on the body or at the crime scene.
The Major Crime Investigation Team of the Mauritius Police Force faced significant criticism for its handling of the case and for allegations made by Treebhoowoon. He claimed that he had been beaten for three days by officers before confessing to strangling McAreavey after she interrupted him and co‑accused Sandeep Moonea during a theft from her hotel room.
Verdict
On 12 July 2012, Judge Prithviraj Fekna instructed the jury not to consider the potential impact of their decision on the reputation of Mauritius. He reminded the six men and three women that they were not politicians and that it was not their role to protect the country's image: "You have been told that this will have an international ramification and will affect the image of Mauritius... this is not your role. You must not allow yourself to be influenced by this, you are not politicians, you have to base yourself on what has happened".Although the case had originally been scheduled to last nine days, the trial continued into its eighth week. After two hours of deliberation, the jury returned a unanimous verdict acquitting Avinash Treebhoowoon and Sandeep Moonea. In a statement following the verdict, the McAreavey and Harte families said that after "seven harrowing weeks of this trial" there were no words to describe "the sense of devastation and desolation now felt by both families".
Lawyers for Treebhoowoon and Moonea called for all evidence in the case to be handed to non‑Mauritian investigators, describing the MCIT as "incompetent".
Aftermath
Following the verdict, the Mauritian government issued a statement saying that "The government and the people of Mauritius understand and continue to share the grief and agony of the Harte and McAreavey families, the Government is considering all options concerning further action in this matter, with a view to bringing the perpetrators of this heinous crime to justice."An online campaign calling for a boycott of the Mauritian tourism sector, one of the island's main industries, was launched by some Irish people. Irish politician Seán Kelly supported the campaign, stating: "No justice for Michaela McAreavey in Mauritius. It is a massive indictment of Mauritius authorities’ incompetence. No Irish should visit Mauritius yet until justice is done." Calls for a boycott intensified after events on 15 July 2012.
On that date, the Mauritian newspaper the Sunday Times published "exclusive" photographs of the crime scene, including images of McAreavey's body. A spokesperson for the Harte and McAreavey families described the publication as "insensitive to their grief" and "another low in the treatment of John, the two families and the dignity of Michaela".
Reacting to the publication, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said that the Irish Government would lodge a formal complaint "in the strongest possible terms" with the government of Mauritius. The McAreavey family's lawyer in Mauritius, Dick Ng Sui Wa, called for the perpetrator to be arrested and requested a full inquiry from the Commissioner of Police. Mauritian police launched an inquiry into how the newspaper published the photographs. Police officers raided the offices of the newspaper on the morning of 16 July 2012 but found no photographs. On 18 July 2012, the newspaper's editor and director general, Imran Hosany, was arrested. He appeared in court later that day charged in connection with the publication of the photographs and was released on bail. The Press Employees Union in Mauritius issued a statement supporting Hosany, arguing that "Both the local press and international news agencies regularly show pictures of murder, bloodied demonstrators, corpses of people killed or injured in conflict areas, among others, The USEP considers that the treatment suffered by the editor of the Sunday Times in the hands of the Mauritius Police is disproportionate to the offences charged."
A new investigation team was established in August 2012. Thirty-eight people were interviewed, 68 witnesses took part in a reconstruction of events, and 350 DNA samples were sent to a laboratory in France. On 27 December 2012, police submitted a report to the Director of Public Prosecutions naming a suspect.
In August 2015, after lodging a case against the Legends Hotel, John and his relatives received nearly 65 million rupees. McAreavey's legal representative, Dick Ng Sui Wa, said that the two parties had reached the confidential settlement through mediation.
In September 2016, John married Tara Brennan, with the blessing of the Harte family. They have two children.
In August 2020, John said that the Mauritian government had informed him of a new inquiry into his wife's murder, though he questioned its timing, noting that it coincided with his criticism of Liverpool FC's commercial partnership with Mauritius. In June 2021, the Mauritian government agreed to re-examine the investigation.
On 1 October 2021, former suspect and key witness Raj Theekoy was reported missing. His body was found on 3 October on a vacant plot of land at Beau Plateau, near Goodlands. Although it was rumoured that he had died by suicide, officers from the Scene of Crime Office continued their inquiries.
The MCIT arrested former hotel watchman Dassen Narayen again on 29 March 2022 after new evidence emerged. Charges against him had previously been dropped in 2013 after he alleged that he had been tortured by police.
At a press conference in April 2022, lawyers for Sandeep Moonea stated that John McAreavey should be considered the main suspect and said they intended to seek an arrest warrant to allow further questioning.
Despite having failed to resolve the case after being appointed chief investigator in 2017, retired police superintendent Daniel Monvoisin was brought back from retirement as a special adviser on "high-profile cases".
In November 2025, ahead of the 15th anniversary of McAreavey's death, Tánaiste Simon Harris met members of her family, including her widower John, to reaffirm Ireland's commitment to supporting the investigation. Discussions included renewed diplomatic engagement with Mauritian and UK authorities and an offer of technical assistance from the Police Service of Northern Ireland.