Murder of Irish-American woman shocks wealthy Brussels suburb

Irish Times

5 days ago

The killing initially looked like a burglary gone wrong. Carmel Delaney, an Irish-American woman in her early 60s, had been stabbed to death in her home, in a wealthy
Brussels
neighbourhood popular with diplomats and business executives.
The suspected murder – and the details that would later emerge – have gripped the Belgian public for weeks.
Ms Delaney was born in New York, but her mother was originally from Ballyclerihan, Co
Tipperary
and her father from Dublin, so growing up she spent many childhood summers back visiting Ireland.
A mother of four adult children, with two young grandchildren, Ms Delaney was someone who made friends easily.
READ MORE
There were hiking and travel companions, and tennis and bridge playing partners, in Brussels and the many other cities she had lived in throughout her life. 'She was so social,' an Irish relative of Ms Delaney said.
Her husband, Chris Delaney, was a senior executive at US tire giant Goodyear, overseeing its business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, from Brussels, where the couple had lived for the last seven years.
At a little past 8pm on March 17th, St Patrick's Day, Belgian police received an emergency call.
Mr Delaney had opened the door of their apartment in the leafy Brussels suburb of Woluwe-Saint-Pierre, to find his wife dead inside the home. An autopsy later revealed she had been stabbed about four times in the neck and chest, with some type of sharp object.
Police investigating the crime scene suspected a possible burglary gone wrong. 'The victim's husband had discovered her body in their home and found that three luxury watches had been stolen,' the Brussels public prosecutor said in a statement. However, there was no obvious signs of someone forcing their way into the apartment.
Then three weeks later came an arrest. A female colleague of Mr Delaney was taken in for questioning. The next day she was charged with murder.
In a statement, the prosecutor confirmed a suspect who worked with Mr Delaney had been charged with murder and possession of a weapon.
One line of investigation Belgian police had pursued was the possibility Mr Delaney and his coworker were involved in a romantic relationship, according to reports in local media. The prosecutor said they could not disclose further details.
Some early hearings in the criminal case took place in front of a French-speaking judge, but it has since been transferred to a Flemish judge. A lawyer representing the accused did not respond to requests for comment.
In the upmarket suburb where the Delaney couple lived, the killing has shocked locals.
'The whole area is one of the best in Brussels,' said a retired EU official who lives nearby. 'You would compare it with Blackrock in Dublin.'
The street in Woluwe-Saint-Pierre, Brussels, where Carmel Delaney and her husband lived. Photo: Jack Power
'We say in French, it's something that can happen anywhere in the world', he said of Ms Delaney's killing.
The area is popular with wealthy diplomats and officials who work in the nearby European Union institutions. Luxembourg's ambassador to the EU lives across the road from the Delaney's home, and the embassy of Kosovo is only a few buildings down from their apartment block.
A team of four gardeners from a private firm were tending to rows of well-kept hedges that run along both sides of the whole street on Thursday afternoon. It's the sort of place you might expect to see a Porsche drive by – and, while The Irish Times was there, two did so within 20 minutes of each other.
The owner of a small local business said she only learned of the tragedy when journalists from the Belgian media began to descend on the leafy street.
Another woman on her way to work said Woluwe-Saint-Pierre was a very quiet area. 'It's not that kind of neighbourhood where you would expect ...' she said, before trailing off and stopping.
Ms Delaney and her husband had been due to retire to the United States and return to New York, after careers that had seen them both work across the world.
She grew up in Horseheads, a small village in upstate New York, before moving to Bardonia, which is closer to the city. Those who knew her said she had fond memories of summer trips back to Ireland as a child.
Her parents had met on a blind date. Her mother, Maureen O'Dwyer, was the second eldest of 11 siblings, in a family that had a farm and stables in Ballyclerihan, keeping and breeding racehorses. Her father, Jim Gallagher, was from Dublin.
After graduating from Cornell University in 1985, Ms Delaney got a job with consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble (P&G), where she worked for 15 years, across the US, Saudi Arabia, Poland and Ukraine.
It was in P&G that she met Mr Delaney. The couple later moved to Sydney, Australia, where they lived for several years. Around that time Ms Delaney set up her own company, International Education Resources, which provided assistance to international students applying to study in the US.
They had a holiday home in the Catskills, a mountainous part of New York state, where they spent summers hiking and winters skiing. 'They were a force,' one person who knew the couple said.
Then in 2017 the pair moved to Brussels, as Mr Delaney was promoted to run Goodyear tyre and rubber company's Europe, Middle East and Africa office.
The company has spent recent weeks firefighting the fallout of media coverage of Ms Delaney's killing, which often prominently mentions Goodyear. It is understood a team of 'crisis communications' consultants have been drafted in to help the firm.
Mr Delaney is no longer employed by the US company and has since retired.
During her time in the Belgian capital Ms Delaney became heavily involved in a women's social club, organising hikes and running its website.
There she was known for her 'unwavering positivity', the Brussels Women's Club committee said in a message of condolence posted online after her death. 'Her life motto, 'bloom where you are planted,' embodied her ability to adapt, grow and thrive wherever life took her,' the group wrote.
She made an effort to travel to Ireland at least once a year most of her adult life, one of her Irish relatives said. 'Carmel was a wonderful girl ... We loved her'.