The remains of three-year-old Clarissa McCarthy, who was drowned by her father in a murder-suicide in west Co Cork in 2013, have been exhumed from their joint grave in Schull.
A cremation will take place in the coming days to facilitate her mother, Rebecca Saunders, in bringing her daughter home to the United States for burial. The American national moved back to her native country following the tragedy.
A plaque commemorating the life of Clarissa is also to due to be placed at Audley Cove, the beach where the youngster liked to play and also where the child died.
Cork County Council confirmed that the exhumation had taken place.
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Ms Saunders spoke earlier this year of her relief at being granted permission to exhume the remains of her child from a graveyard in Schull for burial in her native country.
In March she posted on her Twitter account, Clarissa’s Cause, confirming that she had been granted the licence to exhume Clarissa .
“After nine years I will be able to take Rissa home ! This has been a really long time coming. It’s a day for celebration. A heartfelt thank you to everyone who has helped to shape this in to reality. You’ve no idea what this means to me and my family.”
In April of last year, Ms Saunders met a $50,000 fundraising target to have the remains of her child exhumed and transferred to the US for burial.
Rebecca Saunders tweeted: “We’ve done it — thank you” as her Go Fund me page hit its €42,000 target following a huge reaction to her appearance on RTÉ’s Claire Byrne Live. The story of her plans to exhume the body of her daughter first broke in the Irish Examiner. In a previous interview with 96FM Ms Saunders, who lives in Houston, Texas said that when the tragedy occurred “in a fog of grief and shock” she permitted her darling child Clarissa to be buried “with the father she loved, but who took her life from her”.
‘Just wasn’t fair’
Rebecca was just 26-years-old when her husband Martin McCarthy (50) drowned their daughter Clarissa at Audley Cove in west Cork on March 5th, 2013. Three days later father and daughter shared a single coffin at a requiem mass at St Mary’s Church in Schull. They were laid to rest in an adjacent graveyard.
In a note left for Rebecca, Mr McCarthy wrote that: “If you can take Clarissa to America I can take Clarissa to Heaven.” He told her that her family would be dead by the time she read the letter.
“You can now get on with the rest of your life as mine and Clarissa’s is about to end. By the time you will get to read this letter I and Clarissa will be in Heaven. You did not realise how much I loved you. I could not see my daughter being raised up by a step father,” he wrote.
Rebecca told 96FM that when tragedy struck she believed that McCarthy had taken a snap decision. However, subsequent information indicated that there was a degree of planning to his actions.
At a 2014 inquest, 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.
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.
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