:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/RXXIW3ETYVBJPCIOEZELFZSNAA.jpg)
A mother of a girl (3), who was buried in a single coffin in west Cork with the father who killed her before taking his own life, has spoken of her relief at having the remains of her daughter exhumed.
The body of Clarissa McCarthy is being cremated so that her American-born mother, Rebecca Saunders, can bring her remains home to Houston in Texas. Ms Saunders started a campaign to exhume the body last year. Her efforts began eight years after the father of the child Martin McCarthy walked in to the sea at Audley Cove in west Cork carrying his daughter and drowning them both. Clarissa died in a beach below the family farm outside Ballydehob on March 5th, 2013.
In an interview on the Claire Byrne Show, on RTÉ Radio 1 on Thursday, Ms Saunders said she instantly regretted burying Clarissa with her father. Clarissa was laid to rest three days after the murder-suicide took place.
“I had less than 24 hours before I was asked how my daughter, who was alive what seemed to me like mere moments ago, how she would spend the rest of eternity,” she said.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/2YKW3NFZXJPOXJNYYPCGNZJ3FA.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/ZICA7Z2SJXUA7E7SNW22ZK6KHQ.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/TGDYKOXSX5F25DGKX666H5A23U.jpg)
:quality(70):focal(225x155:235x165)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/3SVDWRLGS5GKBJMFHAZM67SEJ4.JPG)
“I wanted to exhume Clarissa from that moment when her coffin was laid in the ground and I turned to legal help and help from Irish public bodies and I felt it would be a fruitless endeavour.”
She said about 15 months ago having received a positive reception to an interview she gave to The Irish Examiner she restarted to consider her position. She decided to actively pursue putting in an application to Cork City Council to exhume the body of her daughter.
Now remarried and with two daughters in the United States, she set up a Go Fund me page to pay for the costs of the process – both legal and the physical transportation of the remains of her daughter.
Ms Saunders spoke of being enormously grateful to the Irish public who contributed in droves to allow her to pursue her dream of bringing Clarissa physically closer to her.
“I wouldn’t have been able to do this without the help shown by people who didn’t even know me. People who have given their financial support, and their prayers and their and their words of kindness. I just want to thank everybody because |I would not have been financially able to bring Clarissa home at this time.”
Ms Saunders admits she was unable to feel any sense of peace as long as Clarissa remained buried in west Cork.
“It felt like I had abandoned her. I felt like I had made the worst decision I could in decisions I felt like I didn’t have the power to do myself,” she said.
“Being able to not only remove her from the arms of her murderer but have her closer to me that has certainly given me a greater sense of comfort and peace. "
The $10,000 in unused funds from the Go Fund Me appeal has been donated to Cork University Maternity Hospital and the Cork Edel House centre for women and children who are homeless. Ms Saunders plans to donate any remaining funds to the Inshore Rescue who work in the west Cork area.
“They and the coastguard were the people to find Clarissa that night. They are all volunteer workers and yet it is such a necessary service,” Ms Saunders said.
Ms Saunders said being back in Ireland for the exhumation has been an anxious and stressful experience. However, with the completion of the exhumation it is “like a weight had been lifted” from her shoulders. She is grateful to locals who have offered her accommodation and shown her kindness during her trip.
However, she has no plans to return to Ireland unless her two daughters, born after the death of Clarissa, express an interest in seeing where she lived during her short life.
“I don’t have any wish to return to Ireland. I know if my daughters, who are quite young now, have a desire to visit where their eldest sister grew up, I would love to share this wonderful place with them. But on my own I don’t wish to return any time soon.
“A plaque will be going up in Audley Cove, which wasn’t just the place she spent the last moments of her life. That was her favourite place in the world.
“I am (also) going to take Clarissa’s remains home to Houston and separate the cremated ashes, and make pieces of commemorative jewellery and share those with people who loved her and who she loved.”
An inquest in to the deaths of father and daugther in 2014 heard from Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster who said that both Mr McCarthy, who was found to have a blood alcohol concentration of 204mgs per 100ml, and Clarissa had died from acute cardio respiratory failure due to drowning.
Coroner for west Cork Frank O’ Connell returned verdicts that both Mr McCarthy and Clarissa died from cardio-respiratory failure due to drowning and that in the case of Mr McCarthy it was self-inflicted while in the case of Clarissa, she was taken into the water, became unconscious and drowned.
The inquest in Bantry, Co Cork heard that a major land and sea search was launched for the duo when a note addressed to Ms Saunders, was discovered in the milking parlour on March 5th. The note was in Mr McCarthy’s handwriting.
Mr O’Connell, who read the note, said it was clear why serious concerns over the safety of the duo were raised as the farmer was “explicit” in the note about his intentions. Mr McCarthy had changed his will before his death and excluded his wife from inheriting major assets.
If you are affected by any issue in this article, helplines are open at:
Samaritans 01-116123, jo@samaritans.org
Aware 1800-804848, supportmail@aware.ie
Pieta House 1800-247247