The parents of murdered student Jastine Valdez say they still live with the trauma of what happened to her - five years on.
Tragic Jastine was kidnapped and brutally murdered by monster Mark Hennessy close to her home in Enniskerry, Co Wicklow on May 19, 2018. Yesterday marked the fifth anniversary of her murder, which shocked the nation.
And in an exclusive statement to the Irish Mirror on the anniversary, Jastine’s heartbroken parents Tess and Danilo Valdez said: “Thinking of you each day with an aching heart. So we whisper and call your name every time just to ease the pain of losing you.
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“The shock the trauma still lingers. We are trying to live our best to fill the void. The emptiness that you left and that no one can feel. We love you and missing you terribly Jastine our princess.”
Monster Mark Hennessy snatched and murdered Jastine because he is believed to have been infatuated with her - even rehearsing her abduction beforehand.
Speaking publicly for the first time about the frantic search for Jastine, retired detective superintendent Frank Keenaghan previously told the Irish Mirror that he believed Hennessy sexually assaulted the student before murdering her – and dumping her in heavy gorse in south County Dublin.
The respected former senior garda told us how emergency workers begged Hennessy to tell them where he had hidden Jastine – as they fought to save his life after a Garda detective shot him at the end of a 24-hour manhunt.
"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,” Mr Keenaghan said.
Hennessy was shot dead by an armed garda in the Cherrywood Industrial estate after it was believed he was harming himself or even Jastine in the car he was in.
After Hennessy died gardai discovered a note in the car which contained the words “Pucks Castle,” - the location where they ultimately found Jastine’s remains.
At an inquest at Dublin Coroner’s Court into Jastine’s death, the jury returned a verdict of unlawful killing.
At the time the Detective Superintendent Frank Keeneghan said that gardaí had carried out extensive examinations of the phones and social media profiles of Ms Valdez and Hennessy. No prior link between them was discovered.
The cause of death, according to deputy state pathologist Dr Linda Mulligan, was asphyxia through external pressure on the neck.
Ms Valdez's boyfriend Joseph Squire said that she never took drugs and 'was way too innocent for anything like that'.
'The image of that beautiful young woman remains with us,' coroner Dr Myra Cullinane told the inquest.
'It is inconceivable how her parents can bear the loss of their only child. 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.'
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