A cremation service for con-woman Julia Holmes has taken place in Cork.

According to Live95FM, the body of the 63-year-old was found in an upstairs bedroom alongside that of her partner 56-year-old Thomas Ruttle at their home in Boolaglass, Askeaton on the May 18 last following an apparent suicide pact.

Gardai believe the couple may have died from deliberate exposure to carbon monoxide.

Originally from Northern Ireland, Julia Holmes, who used over 40 different aliases, was a convicted fraudster who was the subject of Garda, PSNI and FBI investigations.

Her body was taken from the morgue at University Hospital Limerick this morning to the Island Crematorium, Ringaskiddy, Co. Cork for a private cremation.

Her body had remained in the morgue for over a week following the post mortem, unclaimed.

Her only child, a son whom she abandoned 40 years ago in Northern Ireland as a baby, has said that he wants nothing to do with his estranged mother.

It's unclear what will happen to Ms Holmes ashes once they are available to be released. It is looking increasingly unlikely that any of the families that she encountered over her 40 years in Northern Ireland, the US and the south of Ireland, will come forward to claim her remains, despite a letter she sent to solicitors in Belfast requesting that she be buried alongside Thomas Ruttle.

On Wednesday her partner was laid to rest following a funeral service in St Mary's Church of Ireland in Askeaton attended by family and friends.

In his sermon Reverend Keith Scott told those gathered that their time of grief had been made more difficult by the strangeness of the events leading up to Mr Ruttle's death.

Detectives are awaiting the results of toxicology tests, which could take another week, before they can confirm how the couple died.