Michaela McAreavey

In December 2019, a podcast titled “Murder in Mauritius” was released by John McAreavey and the Harte family. It detailed the events leading up to Michaela’s death as well as the aftermath of her murder.

In August 2015, after lodging a case against the Legends hotel, John McAreavey and his relatives received nearly Rs 65 Million (£1.6 Million Pound sterling. The legal representative of John McAreavey, Dick Ng Sui Wa claimed that the two parties reached a settlement through mediation. He did not give any further details as the settlement was confidential.

In November 2015, John McAreavey married again to Tara Brennan with the full blessing of the Harte family.

It was the first murder of a tourist in Mauritius; the Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam expressed his sympathy to the Harte and McAreavey families. Two hotel workers who were accused of her murder have been tried and declared not-guilty by the Supreme Court of Mauritius, they were acquitted on 12 July 2012.

The trial of two hotel workers accused of murdering Michaela McAreavey began in Mauritius on 22 May 2012.

On 6 June 2012, John McAreavey said he was handcuffed by police officers and they examined his body for marks. He also saw one of the accused (Avinash Treebhoowoon) on two occasions within a number of minutes the day his wife died. McAreavey said that he had gone back to the hotel room looking for his wife when she failed to return to the restaurant after leaving him to get some biscuits from their room to eat with their cups of tea. He found her unconscious in the bath, with the tap running and laid her on the floor and then tried to revive her. The DNA test made by a forensic expert from England revealed that no DNA traces of the two men accused and the other two original suspects were found on Michaela McAreavey body and at the crime scene except the DNA of John McAreavey.

On 12 July 2012, the judge Prithviraj Fekna told the jurors not to worry about what ramifications any verdict may have on the reputation of Mauritius. He reminded the six men and three women that they were not politicians and it was not their job to protect the image of the country. "You have been told that this will have an international ramification and will affect the image of Mauritius… this is not your role," Fekna said. "You must not allow yourself to be influenced by this, you are not politicians, you have to base yourself on what has happened."

Some Irish people started an internet campaign calling for a boycott of the Mauritian tourism sector, one of the main pillars of the island's economy. However some argue that the whole Mauritian population should not be blamed for the mistakes of a few people. The Irish politician Seán Kelly supported the campaign by saying: "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 following the events of 15 July 2012.

On 15 July 2012, a new Mauritian newspaper called Sunday Times published photographs of the hotel room crime scene, including images of Michaela's body in its 35th edition. The front page featured a photograph of Michaela's body under the headline "Exclusive". A spokesperson for the Harte and McAreavey families said: “As the families struggle to come [to terms] with the result from the trial - this action by the newspaper is not only insensitive to their grief but marks another low in the treatment of John, the two families and the dignity of Michaela.”

Mauritian police launched an inquiry into how the newspaper published the photographs. Police officers raided the offices of the Sunday Times newspaper on the morning of 16 July 2012. They found no photographs. On 18 July 2012, the newspaper's editor and director general, Imran Hosany, was arrested. Later that day, he appeared in court charged with related to the publication of the photographs. He was later released on bail. The Press Employees Union in Mauritius (USEP) issued a statement in support of Hosany: "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 set up in August 2012 to start an inquiry. Thirty-eight people were interviewed and 68 witnesses participated in a reconstruction of the circumstances of the murder and 350 DNA samples were sent to a laboratory in France. On 27 December 2012 the police submitted a report to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in which a suspect was named.

On 10 January 2011, Michaela and her husband John had lunch at their hotel in Grand Gaube. After lunch, at about 2:44 pm she went to her room. Investigators believe she was wrestled to the ground on entering her room and strangled. She was put into the bath and the water was turned on. Her body was discovered by her husband soon after.

Three male Mauritian employees of the hotel were later arrested for the murder: Avinash Treebhoowoon, Sandip Moneea and Raj Theekoy. They appeared in court in Mauritius on 12 January 2011. Treebhoowoon and Mooneea were charged with McAreavey's murder and Theekoy with conspiracy to murder. DNA tests were taken on the suspects. Dassen Narraien, and Seenarain Mungoo were arrested the following week and charged with aiding and abetting a crime. Narraien and Mungoo were both security officers at the hotel. Mungoo was released and had all charges against him dropped on 12 February 2011.

McAreavey's funeral, which took place on 17 January 2011 at the same church where she was married (St Malachy's, Ballymacilroy), less than one month before, was attended by thousands of mourners, including then President of Ireland Mary McAleese and Northern Ireland's First Minister and deputy First Minister Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness. Mourners from both nationalist and loyalist communities paid their respects and offered condolences. A special mass was held simultaneously in Mauritius in memory of Michaela led by the island's senior priest, Fr Goupille.

Michaela McAreavey, born Michaela Harte, was a 27-year-old Irish language teacher from Glencull (Ballygawley, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland) and the daughter of Tyrone Gaelic football manager Mickey Harte. She had been the Ulster Rose at the 2004 Rose of Tralee.

McAreavey was brought home to be waked. Notables to visit the wake included Cardinal Edward Daly; 1992 All-Ireland winning manager Brian McEniff; GAA President Christy Cooney, Northern Ireland's First Minister and deputy First Ministers, the Democratic Unionist Peter Robinson and Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness; sports minister Nelson McCausland, enterprise minister Arlene Foster and justice committee chairman Maurice Morrow, Baron Morrow.

Michaela McAreavey née Harte (Irish: Micheáilín Mhic Giolla Riabhaigh née Ní hÁirt, 31 December 1983 – 10 January 2011), while on her honeymoon in Mauritius, was found strangled in the bath of her hotel room. The daughter of Tyrone's multiple All-Ireland Senior Football Championship-winning Gaelic football manager Mickey Harte, her death and subsequent events prompted continuing widespread international media coverage.