Inquest told of mum and girl knifed in bloodbath
Victim’s sister blasts killer at double murder inquest
A MOTHER was knifed 61 times while her daughter suffered 11 stab wounds during a brutal double murder at their home, an inquest heard yesterday.
Jolanta Lubiene, 27, and eight-yearold Enrika Lubyte were found dead in their rented Co Kerry house just weeks before they were due to return to Lithuania to live. South Kerry Coroners Court heard her devastated husband Marius Lubys had described their daughter as “the best little girl”. Ms Lubiene’s sister Kristina Kuleviciene said the inquests had brought closure for the family. Asked if her opinion of her sister’s and niece’s murderer had changed, she said: “He is still a monster.” Lithuanian national Aurimas Andruska, 30, is serving two concurrent life sentences for the double murder in June 2013. An appeal to overturn his convictions was unsuccessful. The inquest heard Jolanta and Enrika were found dead in the home they shared at Langford Downs in Killorglin by Jolanta’s friend Ramute Narmute. She said she had become worried when Jolanta hadn’t returned any of her texts or phone calls. When she called to the house on Sunday evening, she could see Jolanta’s body lying on the kitchen floor and could hear her dog barking. Mrs Narmute said she knew her friend was dead because the colour had drained from her face and she was white. She told the court: “I could see the blood on the stairs and the body on the floor of the kitchen. “I thought it was a man at first but then I saw the black hair and I knew it was Jolanta.” Mrs Narmute and her husband then called gardai. Gda Eamon Prenderville said there was a lot of blood staining in the utility room, the kitchen and the hallway. He began to cordon off the scene but when he later returned to the Garda station he learned the victim had a young daughter. The officer said he went back to the house and found Enrika lying on her left-hand side on the landing. The court heard Jolanta had suffered at least 61 stab wounds to the chest, abdomen, neck, arms, legs and back in a “sustained and violent sharp weapon attack”. Dr Margot Bolster’s postmortem of Enrika revealed she been stabbed 11 times and had also suffered some superficial wounds. Both died from haemorrhage and shock due to multiple wounds. Joan O’neill, who worked with Jolanta in the kitchen of St Joseph’s Nursing Home, was the last to see her alive. She gave her colleague a lift into town after they finished work at 1.30pm on the Saturday. When Jolanta didn’t turn up for work on Sunday morning, Mrs O’neill said she reported this to Sr Elizabeth Farrell. The deposition of Det Insp Fearghall Patwell, read out by Supt Flor Murphy, said their murderer was identified through a profile of his DNA found on Enrika’s top. He added a fingerprint in Jolanta’s blood on the wall of the stairs also matched a sample given voluntarily by him to gardai. Forestry worker Andruska was convicted of the double murder in November 2014 after a five-week trial. The inquest jury returned a verdict of unlawful killing in accordance with the findings of the postmortems. Coroner Terence Casey paid tribute to gardai for bringing the double murderer to justice in such a short time. He said: “The people of Killorglin, Kerry and Ireland are very thankful to you for the work you do.” After the inquest, Supt Murphy said he hoped the rejection of Andruska’s appeal against conviction earlier this year has brought the family “solace and comfort”.