The mother of Dean Fitzpatrick says she believes his death could have been prevented - had she been there.
Tragic Dean (23), who is the brother of missing teenager Amy Fitzpatrick, was stabbed to death on this day ten years ago - May 25, 2013. Today his mother Audrey marks the landmark 10th anniversary of his killing, which happened at a Dublin apartment - five years after his sister vanished from the Mijas Costa area of Spain in 2008.
“It feels like it does every day every year. I know it is a landmark thing, ten years. But it doesn’t make a difference.
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"I miss him every day. I miss his phone calls. I miss talking to him,” Audrey told the Irish Mirror.
The full details of what happened to Dean cannot be published at this time due to ongoing legal proceedings in a separate case - but Audrey says the events of that tragic day remain with her ten years on.
“What can I say, it’s been ten years but it still feels like it was yesterday.
“It hasn’t gotten easier. You learn to live with it I suppose more in the last ten years. But I don’t think it will ever go away,” she said.
And Audrey revealed that she believes had she been there in the Dublin apartment where Dean was stabbed that day, perhaps the killing wouldn’t have occurred.
“It’s still crystal clear in my head. That night I was staying with my Dad because he had Alzheimer's and we used to do shifts with him.
“I couldn't leave my Dad until I got someone else to mind him. Of course, it would just happen that one night that I wasn’t in the apartment.
“Things could have been different. Things would have been different had I been there.
“But I wasn't. It’s all ifs and buts and maybes and you can’t change the past you know,” she said.
Asked if she believed she would have been able to prevent the confrontation that led to Dean being knifed in a crime that was deemed to be manslaughter, Audrey said: “I’d like to think so. I’m nearly positive I would have yeah.
“It would have been worse if I was out on the town. I’d have felt more guilty. But I was with my father.
“I was doing something that I was needed to do. But that’s life,” she said.
Paying tribute to Dean, Audrey says she remembers him as a charmer who called her on the phone almost every day. “Like everybody said he was a charmer. He had the same cheeky smile as my Dad. He would ring most days. We would answer the phone to each other all the time.
“It was always ‘Alright Ma what’s the story, and I’d say alright chicken. We always ended the phone call by telling each other that we loved each other.
“He was very protective over me as well.”
Audrey says Dean was haunted by what happened to his sister - after she vanished seemingly without a trace near their then home in Spain on New Years Day 2008.
“He struggled with that an awful lot. He missed his sister very much. He really missed her,” Audrey said.
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“He had the same ideas that we did that somebody we know or somebody that she knew that we didn’t know about maybe.
“So Dean had that idea in his head as well,” she added.
Recently it was reported that police had discovered the body of a person who appeared to be in their 20s or 30s near the area where Amy was last seen. However Audrey says she sadly doesn’t believe this is a break in the case - and believes that it is not Amy.
“I mean I knew someone would be in touch with me if it was looking like her. I knew it wasn't true. They said it was the body of a 20-30-year-old.
“The body was discovered with a satchel. Amy never had a satchel in her life. Amy wouldn't wear a satchel,” she said.
Audrey also dismissed a recent tip off that Amy may be buried in an abandoned stables in Spain.
“That was out years ago and it's just being repeated. The Guardia Civil investigated that back when we were living in Spain.
“So that was a long time ago,” Audrey said.
The heartbroken mother now lives in Carrick on Shannon with her husband Dave Mahon. But she says their home is a broken one - and she often has to remind herself that Dean and Amy are no longer here.
“It's hard. Sometimes on the telly it’s on or something brings it back and it’s being hit with a hammer and you really feel it.
“That’s for both of them and not just for Dean. That’s one of the reasons I have pets as well because I am not used to a quiet house.
“We used to have kids, teenagers around us and their friends always calling over. They’re on my mind every day.
“I still wake up some mornings and just for a few seconds I’m going ‘Oh my God ‘ did I get the kids uniforms out or did I make their lunch last night.
“Then I wake up fully and realise it's not true and they’re not here anymore.”
Amy was last seen walking from her friend Ashley Rose’s house at around 10pm on New Year's Day, 2008, walking in the direction of her home, where she lived with her mother Audrey and stepfather Dave Mahon.
Her mobile phone was subsequently discovered in her bedroom by her mother Audrey, who has repeatedly stated that she does not believe Amy went out with her phone before she vanished.
Despite claims that the case has been shelved, it is understood that officers continue to investigate Amy's disappearance.
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