An American left-wing activist has allegedly been murdered by a Middle Eastern supposed refugee who she allowed to regularly stay at her home in Ireland.
Jamey Carney, 43, was found dead by her 13-year-old daughter at her home in Killarney on Tuesday, by which time police believe the 28-year-old man suspected of killing her had already taken a bus to Dublin and boarded a flight to Istanbul, Turkey.
Police have refused to release the suspect’s name, nationality or photographs, only confirming he had been living in Ireland since 2024 while applying for asylum and lived in an International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS) centre in County Kerry.
But police sources told The Irish Sun that Ms Carney, whose Instagram profile reads “free Palestine” and “f*ck ICE“, had known the man for about a year-and-a-half, that he was from Jordan, and that the pair met at a pro-Palestine protest.
“The feeling is that she may have met this individual at an anti-war demonstration and kept in contact over the last number of months,” a source said.
Ms Carney, a healthcare consultant, was initially believed to have been beaten to death, as she was found with severe head injuries covered with a duvet, but a postmortem found suffocation was the cause of death, The Irish Times reported.
Police sources said the suspect previously lived in France and regularly stayed at Ms Carney’s residence, potentially complicating the investigation as his DNA will be present at the home, where there were reports of a loud argument on the night of her death.
“It would be different if he was an intruder or had never been there before – he might be struggling to explain his DNA in that scenario,” the source said.
There are are also concerns that the suspect may not be able to be extradited to Ireland if found, as Irish law will only permit it if investigators can obtain permission from prosecutors to lay charges.
Ms Carney’s social media shows her wearing a Palestinian scarf at a rally, and features numerous photos and videos of her with a Middle Eastern man, one of which uses AI to depict the pair visiting Petra in Jordan captioned “soon inshallah”.
Another video captioned “dating an Arab be like” included Middle Eastern music over images of loved-up text messages apparently sent by the same man.
Ms Carney’s cousin Ryan Fox told RTE she had moved to Ireland because of her Irish roots, and said he hoped her death would not result in racist commentary.
“She was taken from the people that love her and we’re all going to do everything in our power to make sure that this doesn’t happen to more people because nobody, nobody deserves this,” he said.
“[People should] not use this to become bigoted or racist or prejudice in any way.”
Left-wing Irish politicians have seized on Ms Carney’s death to demand action on “femicide” and millions in funding for domestic violence survivors, while ignoring the suspect’s immigration status.
“It’s become a cliché to describe violence against women as an epidemic and fatal violence against women as femicide, but that’s the reality,” Labour leader Ivana Bacik told parliament.
Header image: Left, Jamey Carney with a man who features heavily on her social media. Right, at a pro-Palestine protest (Instagram).
