Ireland

Jastine Valdez’s parents say killer’s death ‘did not ease their pain’

Student’s parents could not ask Mark Hennessy why he murdered their daughter

Filipina student Jastine Valdez, 24, was killed in May of this year

Vivienne Clarke
Wed Aug 29 2018 - 12:10

The parents of murdered Filipina student Jastine Valdez have said the death of her killer Mark Hennessy did not ease their pain.

Ms Valdez was abducted on Saturday, May 19th while walking along the R760 road near her home in Enniskerry, Co Wicklow. She was murdered shortly afterwards and her body was found the following Monday near Puck’s Castle Lane in Rathmichael, Co Dublin. Hennessy (40), a father of two who lived in Bray, Co Wicklow, was shot and killed by a garda in the Cherrywood industrial estate on May 20th.

“We did not like that he was killed, it didn’t change anything. It didn’t ease the pain that Jastine was gone.

“We were also sad that he passed away. We felt bad that he was killed straight away as we wanted to know what was running through his head. There were lots of questions in our minds. Why he did such an awful thing.”

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The parents of Ms Valdez added they do not blame Ireland for what happened.

Mark Hennessy who was shot dead after abducting and murdering Jastine Valdez. Here he is photographed during the purchase of a Nissan Qashqai in September 2017, the car he used to abduct the student.

"We are not angry at Ireland for what happened, for whatever was going on in his (Mark Hennessy) mind. Ireland is not to blame, Ireland has been good to us," her mother Tess told RTÉ's Today with Miriam show.

“We will always feel indebtedness for all the kindness.”

Speaking through an interpreter, Mrs Valdez told of how happy they were Jastine joined them in Ireland in 2015. She said her daughter had been "very nice, helpful, understanding, very obedient, never caused any trouble, sweet, loving and very helpful to her cousins and family."

Worried

The parents recalled the day Jastine was abducted. They became worried when she did not come home at 5.30pm as had been agreed. “She always told me a time she would be home,” said Tess.

“I was at work. I started to worry. I was calling Danny at home. He looked out the gate. When I got home I sat on the bed and I prayed that my daughter would come back.

“When she didn’t come home by 7.30pm I knew, I had a gut feeling that something terrible had happened.”

Tess said she did not recall the sequence of events that night as she kept collapsing. “I just knew something really bad had happened to her.”

Gardaí kept in contact with the family over the weekend, updating them on Sunday that the search for Jastine was continuing. On Monday afternoon the family were told that Jastine’s body had been found.

Jastine’s father Danny added: “We couldn’t stop crying. We couldn’t eat, we couldn’t believe what had happened.”

No goodbye

The parents were also upset that they did not get to say goodbye to their daughter. Their last interaction with her was via text as she had been in bed when they both left the house that morning.

They had prayed hard for help. “We asked God where was he when we needed him the most to protect our child.”

Following a month long wake in the Philippines, and the burial of Jastine, Tess and Danny have returned to Ireland. It feels very sad being back and living in someone else's house, said Tess.

“It doesn’t feel right living under someone else’s roof.”

She said she could work as a cleaner in a hospital. “Wherever there is a job for me, I’ll do it.”

Danny says he stressed and distraught and not yet ready to work.

A GoFundMe account has been set up to assist the family.

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