The monster who snatched and murdered Jastine Valdez was infatuated with her and had rehearsed the abduction beforehand, the detective who hunted him believes.
Speaking publicly for the first time about the frantic search for Jastine, retired detective superintendent Frank Keenaghan also says he believes Mark Hennessy had a sexual motive for the kidnapping before murdering the 24-year-old and dumping her body in gorse in south Co Dublin. In an exclusive interview with The Star for our special podcast Shattered Lives, which is available this morning, Mr Keenaghan also reveals how emergency workers begged Hennessy to tell them where he had hidden Jastine as they fought to save his life after a detective shot him at the end of a 24-hour manhunt.
Mr Keenaghan says: “Mark was on the ground being treated and I know that one or two of the ambulance people were there imploring him to tell us where she was. But there was no response.”
Read more: Heartbroken parents of murdered Jastine Valdez still leave a plate of dinner out for her every day
Mr Keenaghan, who retired in late 2021 as a detective superintendent after 40 years’ service, was tasked with leading the hunt for Filipina Jastine, 24, when she disappeared close to her home in Enniskerry, Co Wicklow, on Saturday, May 19, 2018. The case horrified the nation and ended with Frank — who was then a detective inspector — among the group that found Jastine’s remains in heavy undergrowth at Puck’s Castle in Rathmichael, south Dublin, the following Monday.
In between, Hennessy, 40, was at the centre of a manhunt as gardai identified him as the abductor and searched for him for more than 24 hours in the desperate hope that Jastine was still alive. The pursuit ended when he was cornered at Cherrywood Business Park. A Garda detective fatally shot Hennessy as he feared he was stabbing Jastine as officers approached the suspect’s Nissan Qashqai.
Now, speaking for the first time, Mr Keenaghan reveals how he raced to the scene of the shooting frantically hoping to find Jastine in the vehicle. He says: “I arrived on scene. Mark Hennessy was receiving first aid by the ambulance crew and he was conscious. He had been shot by a detective.
“When I arrived Mark was on the ground being treated and I know that one or two of the ambulance people were there imploring him to tell us where she was. But there was no response.”
He continues: “It was so disappointing. We had not stopped all day long, we just kept going. I was hoping to look in the boot of the car and Jastine would have been there.” But when the car was searched there was no sign of the accountancy student and Mr Keenaghan knew immediately that she was dead.
“Everybody gave 100 per cent and it is difficult. We were not to know then that within a very small space of hours from when she was abducted that Jastine was murdered,” he says.
“I think that he took her, I think he brought her up to Puck’s Castle. I think that he more than likely sexually assaulted her and I think at that stage he probably took her life. Then we have him on CCTV in one of the local pubs later that night acting as if nothing had happened, not a care in the world, so I’d believe at that stage he had taken Jastine’s life.”
The retired garda also reveals new details of the search for Hennessy before he was cornered in his Qashqai. He was unmasked as the abductor after CCTV from the bus Jastine was taking home showed a car following it and then overtaking it as it went from Bray to Enniskerry.
The CCTV showed that it was a Qashqai and gardai tracked every matching vehicle in the Dublin and Wicklow areas in the hours after the abduction. Hennessy became the main suspect after gardai went to his home and were told that neither he nor the car had been there since the previous night.
“By 10am I think we have our man all right,” Mr Keenaghan says. We are there trying to send messages to him and at this stage we are talking to his family. I am very conscious of Mark’s family — his parents and brother are absolutely salt of the earth, lovely people, really decent and hard working.
“We were ringing him, we were calling to where he worked last and we were looking for all the haunts that he might hang out in.” He added: “It was a race against time. I knew we were up against the clock.”
Gardai later released details of the Qashqai and its reg plate but did not name Hennessey – and this was how they got the lead that the car was in Cherrywood after a woman rang in to say she had seen it in front of her. Mr Keenaghan reveals that a note Hennessy left in the car was covered in blood and could not be read so had to be deciphered by forensics scientists.
The note said Jastine’s body was in the nearby Puck’s Castle and he and other officers raced to the scene. Jastine’s purse was found and then an officer located the body.
Frank said he was relieved in some way for Jastine’s parents. Up to now it had been thought it was a spur of the moment killing but Mr Keenaghan thinks otherwise.
He says: “It would appear that he had seen her at the bus stop and had seen her there before.” He adds: “Maybe he was infatuated with her. Why did he follow the bus? It’s the guts of seven or eight miles. I believe he saw her before.”
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