Gardaí believe mob boss Cornelius Price personally carried out the murders of Willie Maughan and his pregnant partner Ana Varslavane – using a claw hammer.
Evil gangster Price (41) died in a Welsh hospital from a brain injury on Sunday, finally bringing some relief to Willie’s parents Joe and Helen.
Gardai believe the depraved gangster, who orchestrated several murders, lured Willie and Ana to his compound in Gormanstown, Co Meath, where they were then murdered and subsequently had their bodies secretly disposed of on April 14, 2015.
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Now it can be revealed for the first time that gardai had intelligence that Price personally carried out the murders of the young couple using a claw hammer.
And in an exclusive interview with The Irish Star today, Willie’s father Joe says he too has no doubt that Price carried out the murder of his son.
“One hundred per cent he’s the man,” he insisted. “I know for a fact he killed my son. He was the ringleader and he was responsible for killing my son. There’s no ifs and buts. He was the one. He killed my son.”
However, the parents do not know for certain what method Price used to kill Willie and Ana and say they’ve heard different versions over the years.
“You hear he was shot, beaten to death or hit with a car. You know, which one do you believe?” Joe said.
“But he 100 per cent killed my son.”
Willie’s heartbroken parents now hope that the death of Price will lead to others coming forward and finally disclosing where the bodies are.
They believe Price murdered their son and his partner simply because the paranoid mobster thought that Willie might tell all he knew about the 2014 killing of Benny Whitehouse.
Following their disappearance, the family were intimidated and threatened for years - and, as Helen reveals for the first time today, the depraved hood even sent men to her door threatening to have her killed.
She said: “He sent people to my house to give the threats to me, telling me to shut my mouth or I was going to be took out.
“I stood my ground and I will continue to stand my ground while the strength is in my body.”
Brave Helen, who also had to endure Price’s gang digging up her son Michael’s grave, said that in spite of everything she never feared the mobster.
“Why should I fear him?” she asked. “When he killed my son in that property, my son was just there on his own. Just him and Ana.
“If I went to him with a crowbar how would he have felt? But we didn’t do that. We did things the right way and we will continue doing it.”
Helen said the death of Price means that other families won’t have to suffer like hers.
“It means a lot for us because it means another family will not have to go through the pain we are going through for nearly eight years.
“We didn’t get closure for William and Ana. It will be eight years in April now and I’m constantly reminded. You might get a break for a few minutes in the day but it always comes back.
“Hopefully with the power of God and prayers, down the road some time we will get closure.”
Helen said she hopes now that Price is dead people who might have been afraid to come forward and tell what they know, might do so.
She said: “There would be people that would know and all I would just say, I would ask them to clear their conscience and give us the closure that we deserve.
“All I would just say is if anyone has any information please come forward. Come and clear
your conscience.”
Helen says she holds Price personally responsible for what happened to her son and his partner, adding: “We know 100 per cent that he was present when my son
was murdered.
“My son was murdered in Price’s compound and he was there when the murders happened.
“I would hold him fully responsible for the murders of William and Ana.
“The reason my son was murdered was because he had information on Benny Whitehouse’s murder. My son was moving back to Tallaght and he had information and they were afraid he was going to release that information.”
Helen says she knows in her heart that her son and Ana are now in heaven, while Price is in hell.
“I strongly believe my son and Ana went straight to heaven because my son didn’t take a life,” she said.
“My belief is what you do wrong in life, it’s like a clock and when the clock comes to a certain time you have to face God.
“I firmly believe he (Price) will never see the gates of heaven. He’s gone down below to the fires, that’s where he’s gone.”
And she says she hopes those who now grieve for Price understand the pain she has gone through.
“I do believe the people that did this to my son, there’s a lot of suffering (for them) now,” she said.
“The tears that I’ve been crying and my family is crying , let his family see what death is like now. Let his mother go through the pain and his family go through the pain my family has been going through.”
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