BLOODSTAINED NOTE IN CAR LED TO BODY
Man suspected of abducting and killing Jastine Valdez left note revealing location
THE man suspected of abducting and murdering Jastine Valdez left a bloodstained note in his car revealing where her body lay, it emerged last night.
The note was discovered in Mark Hennessy’s Nissan 4x4 moments after a garda shot him dead following a stand-off in south Dublin on Sunday. It is understood the note said her body could be found at Puck’s Castle Lane, which is just over the Wicklow border in Dublin, leading gardaí on a huge search of the area.
They brought in reinforcements from Wickow and Dublin in the frantic search for Jastine, eventually finding her body yesterday.
And gardaí will also compare Hennessy’s DNA against other attacks on women to find out if he
committed other crimes in the past. But they believe the abduction and murder may have been entirely random and unplanned.
Detectives investigating her death have so far been unable to establish any link between 24-yearold Valdez and her suspected killer Hennessy.
Early indications are that the father-of-two took the Filipino student and carer to the Puck’s Castle area of the Dublin Mountains where he is believed to have strangled her before dumping her body in heavy scrub.
Her body was fully clothed when discovered yesterday afternoon although gardaí are trying to establish if she was sexually assaulted and that her attacker put her clothing back on.
That will be discovered at the post mortem due to take place today at 10am.
Earlier yesterday search teams had discovered the young woman’s purse containing her ID in a disused golf course close by.
It is understood that a sock belonging to her was later found in the vicinity.
A Garda statement said that formal identification had yet to take place and they appealed for privacy for the Valdez family at this time.
Prior to the discovery, sniffer dogs and their handlers alongside gardaí swept over the hilly area overlooking Shankill before several buses containing 60 Army personal arrived to join the search.
Army officers walked along the rocky path which is popular with local dog walkers and hikers, while
Body was fully clothed
others probed into the deep foliage in the well-forested area off the well-worn trail.
The murder is the second brutal killing of a young woman in less than a week and has left Irish society deeply traumatised.
Gardaí are still investigating the murder of 14-year-old Ana Kriegel whose battered body was discovered in a disused farmhouse in Lucan by gardaí on Thursday.
Ms Valdez was reported missing by her parents late on Saturday night after she failed to return home and could not be contacted by phone or social media.
Earlier that evening two witnesses called gardaí and reported a partial registration after they saw a young woman matching Ms Valdez’s description being bundled into a dark coloured car on the R760.
Another witness later told gardaí he saw a young woman in distress in a car on the N11, a short distance from the abduction scene.
On Sunday morning, a Garda search party found Ms Valdez’s mobile phone and bag near the location where she had been abducted.
Later that evening gardaí released the full registration of the black Nissan Qashqai and appealed for the public’s help in tracking the car – but they warned people not to approach it.
A few hours later, the car was found at a car park in Cherrywood Business Park.
Builder Hennessy, the man suspected of the student’s abduction and murder, is understood to have tried to attack gardaí with a knife before being shot. The father of two from Bray died a short time later from his wounds.
A shocked neighbour described the suspect as a ‘terribly nice man’ and said that she was shocked to hear about what had unfolded over the weekend.
According to the neighbour the family had only been living beside them for a few years but had been very quiet and a good neighbour.
Hennessy, 40, had appeared in court last week in connection to charges of drink driving and leaving the scene of an accident in Bray last September. He was due to appear in court again early next month for the criminal case.
Ms Valdez was an only child and had moved to Ireland from the Philippines three years ago. She was a student at the Institute of Technology, Tallaght, where she studied accountancy. The young woman lived in the gate lodge of a mansion outside Enniskerry, where her mother worked as a cleaner. Local Senator Neale Richmond last night said the local community is in a state of disbelief.
He said: ‘ As a community we’re shaken by this horrendous news... It is a relatively rural area but very settled and peaceful. It’s chilling to think something so awful could happen here.
‘Our thoughts and prayers are with the victim, her family and our emergency services at this terrible time,’ he said.
Dublin Rathdown TD and Culture Minister Josepha Madigan told of her devastation at what had happened.
‘I’m horrified that a young woman has lost her in life in such terrible circumstances and it’s so sad to think that the place where the body was found was just 50 metres in from the road,’ she said
Consul of the Philippines in Ireland Mark Congdon described the situation as ‘tragic’ and said everyone was ‘deeply, deeply saddened’.
He said: ‘The messages of support for the family and for her have been
incredible, both from Irish and Filipinos,. It’s just traumatic. It’s absolutely traumatic. Ireland has been understood as a very safe country. You wouldn’t expect this in Enniskerry of all places, you wouldn’t expect it.’
Earlier yesterday, areas of Killiney Hill were sealed off and a Garda helicopter could be seen circling the skies over south Co. Dublin.
People living around Rathmichael approached gardaí at the roadblock at Puck’s Castle Lane offering support and information. One man stopped his car and offered searchers the use of his drone.
Another woman approached the police tape and told the gardaí there about suspicious activity she had seen in the area over the previous days.
A local woman who did not wish to be named said that she had walked frequently in the area for 50 years and that she could not remember anything as sinister as this happening before.
‘I’ve walked on my own here for 50 years,’ she said. ‘There’s never any trouble apart from some joyriding and the occasional burned-out car,’ she said.
Fine Gael councillor John Ryan said that the local community was in shock and had continued to hope that she would be found alive until the tragic news was revealed.
‘It’s just appalling and I think the sense of fear and disgust and all of those things come together you know, and obviously everybody’s just in shock, absolutely in shock ‘, he said.