Who was Jennifer Cronin and what happened to her?
JENNIFER CRONIN died in 2018 after her son-in-law inflicted a horrific attack on her.
The pensioner, who was 72 when she died, was ambushed by Kieran Lynch in her own back garden after her daughter left him and moved on in a new relationship.
Who was Jennifer Cronin?
Jennifer Cronin was a pensioner who lived in a quiet cul-de-sac at the time of her death.
Her husband had passed away some years before, and Jennifer lived in a £800,000 home next to a golf course in Benfleet, near Essex, England.
What happened to Jennifer Cronin?
Jennifer Cronin died at the age of 72 after being burned in a petrol attack in her back garden in March 2018.
Her son-in-law Kieren Lynch, who was known to be a cocaine abuser, set her on fire after his estranged wife Susan, Jennifer’s daughter, asked him for a divorce.
Susan, who had two daughters during her marriage to Lynch, had dumped the “extremely abusive” bricklayer in 2017 after he threatened her with a hammer.
A year later he saw red after finding out his estranged wife had embarked on a new relationship.
Jennifer passed away 17 days after Lynch’s horrific crime.
Prior to the petrol attack, killer Lynch had bombarded Jennifer and her family with calls and messages but was not arrested.
A later probe found that Essex Police were called six times in 24 hours about Kieran’s behaviour, with one call including a warning he could harm Jennifer the day he killed her in Benfleet in 2018.
Where is Kieren Lynch now?
During his attack on Jennifer, Kieren also burned himself to death.
Lynch was arrested by police on suspicion of attempted murder after the brutal attack on March 13, 2018 but he died in hospital later that day.
Susan, who watched from her mum’s kitchen window in horror as the attack happened said that she confronted her ex as he burned to death.
She said he looked like “pink charred meat” with all his clothes burnt off, and that she screamed at him and called him an animal.
In a January 2023 ITVX documentary, A Murder in The Family, Susan said of Kieran: “I think he did it to hurt me.
“He knew how close I was to my mum and he knew how much we meant to each other and I think it was the biggest way of hurting me.”
She added of her mum: “She had no eyebrows, no eyelashes. All her hair was burnt off.
“Her hands were red raw. Her face… everything was sort of black.”
Susan previously said her mum looked “so serene” as she died, adding: “She told me she loved me. I think she knew she was dying.”
In January 2019, a week-long jury concluded that Jennifer was unlawfully killed while Lynch died by suicide.
Poor communication by Essex Police had been a factor, according to the inquest.
A “lack of clarity” over domestic abuse offences and a lack of “positive action” from officers was later identified by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), per The Mail Online.
A domestic homicide review said Lynch’s behaviour in the run up to the petrol attack that killed Jennifer had “amounted to stalking“.
The review also criticised police for allowing Lynch to slip through the net.