For Christy and Nancy Whelan, Christmas Day 2008 began like every other Christmas morning.

Their home in rural Kilkenny was always the centre of the festivities and they were busy preparing for the arrival of the whole family later that day.

Their daughter Sharon (30) and her two daughters Zarah (7) and Nadia (2) were living in a rented house on a farm just a kilometre or so away.

Zarah and Nadia Whelan

That morning, Christy and Nancy didn't know that Sharon’s rented cottage was ablaze, with her two young daughters in their beds. The two girls went to sleep on Christmas Eve excited about what Santa would bring them. They never woke up.

The family assumed the fire was accidental. Within days, a post-mortem revealed that the little girls had died of smoke inhalation, and Sharon had been killed before the fire took hold. There were marks on her neck.

Then began the garda investigation to hunt down a murderer.

In Inside the Crime, a brand new and exclusive podcast for Newstalk, host Frank Greaney will explore how one family’s world was torn apart.

Why did the killer go to Sharon’s home in the early hours of Christmas 2008? Why did he set the house on fire, knowing Zarah and Nadia were asleep in their beds? How did he come to garda attention during the investigations?

Sharon Whelan

This series will lay bare the pain and suffering the family live with on a daily basis, and their quest for what they say should be a fairer justice system.

Episode one of the mini-series is now available, with a new episode released weekly.

Subscribe now to Inside the Crime on Newstalk.com/podcasts or on the Newstalk App.

Inside the Crime is hosted by Frank Greaney, Newstalk’s Crime Correspondent and produced by Aisling Moore. Sound mixing is by Lochlainn Harte.