Grief over murder of Jastine Valdez ‘will never pass’

The parents of Jastine Valdez have said their grief over the murder of the 24-year-old last year “will never pass” and that they long to hug and speak to her.

In a statement on Monday after an inquest at Dublin Coroner’s Court into the death of the Filipina student last year, her parents Danilo and Teresita Valdez said they miss their daughter so much that “it is hard to bear”.

Jastine was abducted shortly after getting off a bus in Enniskerry, Co Wicklow, at about 6.15pm on May 19th, 2018. She was murdered shortly afterwards and her body was found two days later near Puck’s Castle Lane in Rathmichael, Co Dublin.

The man who killed her, Mark Hennessy (40), was shot and killed by a garda in the Cherrywood Industrial Estate near Bray on May 20th.

“We will never know why this happened,” her parents said. “We will never understand how such evil can exist in the world. Our grief will never pass, the loss of our beautiful Jastine will never fade, we will never have peace.”

The inquest heard that Teresita and Danilo Valdez last saw Jastine alive at their home near Enniskerry before they went to work on the morning of May 19th. Teresita and Jastine exchanged 63 messages throughout the day and Teresita last heard from her daughter at 4.20pm. She asked Jastine to buy bread before making her way home.

Jastine, who was studying accountancy at IT Tallaght and working part-time as a care assistant, had a 2pm appointment at Bray Garda station about renewing her residency permit and then went to the gym before going to buy bread and getting on the 185 bus at 5.40pm. She arrived in Enniskerry village at 6pm and began the 15- to 20-minute walk home.

Bundled

In a deposition, Susan Forsythe said she was driving on the R760 between the Powerscourt Estate and Enniskerry when she saw a woman, who turned out to be Jastine, being bundled into a dark Nissan SUV at 6.10pm. Ms Forsythe pulled over and dialled 999.

“I saw a car stopped on the road with no lights and no blinkers. The door of the boot was open. I heard shouting. She was sitting at the edge of the boot looking out at me. I saw an Asian face with dark hair. The shouting turned to screaming,” she said. “I heard a deep male voice shouting angrily. I began to feel there was something very wrong.”

Gareth Thompson told the court he was leaving Bray in the direction of the N11 Dublin to Wexford Road at about 6.20pm and ended up behind the SUV.

“I noticed a little girl waving. She had both hands up. She had a concerned look. She was sitting at an angle, it didn’t look comfortable,” he said.

Gardaí from Bray station responded to Ms Forsythe’s 999 call and found a shopping bag containing a loaf of bread and a smashed mobile phone at the scene of the reported abduction.

They visited the property to which the Nissan Qashqai was registered the following morning and Nicola Hennessy, Mark Hennessy’s wife, told them she did not know where he was.

Pint

In her deposition, Nicola Hennessy said he left their home in the vehicle at 5.25pm after saying he was going to meet his cousin for a pint. “He never came home that night,” she said.

She said he answered his phone at 8am on May 20th and told her he slept in the car on the seafront and would be home soon. When the house was visited by gardaí investigating the abduction, Mrs Hennessy said she sent him a text and got no reply. “That’s the last contact I had with him.”

Following a public Garda appeal for information about the movements of the vehicle, Christina Connolly spotted an SUV that matched the description. She phoned the force and relayed her location as she followed the SUV until it entered the car park at Cherrywood Industrial Estate near Bray.

Hennessy was confronted by armed gardaí soon afterwards and shot, but Jastine was not in the vehicle.

The vehicle was searched and a bloodstained piece of paper was found, with “Pucks Castle” the only discernible words written on it. Jastine’s body was discovered the following day in thick undergrowth at Puck’s Castle Lane after a search.

Cocaine

Pathologist Dr Linda Mulligan carried out a postmortem and found the cause of death was asphyxia due to manual strangulation. She said the death most likely occurred sometime on May 20th.

The pathologist found evidence of bruising and abrasions to the genital area. A toxicology report found evidence of a small amount of cocaine ingested within a couple of hours of death.

Joseph Squire, who had been dating Jastine since November 2017, described her in his deposition as happy and active. “She was always happy, active; she never got up to any mischief,” he said, adding that she never took drugs. “She was literally the most innocent person I ever met in my life and I will never forget her.”

The jury returned a verdict of unlawful killing.

Coroner Dr Myra Cullinane described Jastine’s death as “thoroughly shocking” and commended her parents’ dignity in their loss.

“We’ve had a glimpse of the person that Jastine was and it is tragic that she’s been so cruelly taken in this way,” added Dr Cullinane.