Lynch returned to the camp to find Ireland preparing breakfast and rather than murder the unsuspecting farmhand immediately, he explained that the boy had gone looking for the bullocks and they should eat without him.

When Ireland was about to serve breakfast, Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire distracted him, and when Ireland's back was turned, Lynch cracked his head open with the tomahawk. As the man lay dead at his feet, Lynch wolfed down a hearty meal before dragging both bodies to a cleft