Walk to remember Ashling 2yrs after her brutal murder
Family & friends gather today to mark anniversary of death
FAMILY and friends of Ashling Murphy will gather today to mark the second anniversary of her murder.
A commemorative walk will take place in the schoolteacher’s hometown of Tullamore, where a large crowd is expected to travel from Digby Bridge to her memorial shrine on the Grand Canal.
Last night, Ashling’s parents Ray and Kathleen, siblings Cathal and Amy and boyfriend Ryan Casey, along with extended family, friends and the community of Tullamore also gathered in St Brigid’s Church in Mountbolus, Co Offaly for a special anniversary Mass.
At just 23, the talented trad musician Ashling was killed by evil Jozef Puska in broad daylight on January 12, 2022 just after 3.15pm while she was jogging along the canal.
The stretch of water where she died is called Fiona’s Way after Fiona Pender, a 25-year-old Tullamore woman who disappeared while seven months pregnant in 1996.
Last November, evil Puska, 33, of Lynally Grove, Mucklagh in Co Offaly, started his life sentence after he was convicted of Ashling’s murder following a three-week trial at Dublin’s Central Criminal Court.
He had denied stabbing the schoolteacher 11 times in the neck in a horrific attack on January 12, 2022.
Puska was placed at the scene by the presence of his distinctive green and black bicycle a few feet from Ashling’s body.
He had been captured on CCTV cycling the same bicycle around Tullamore earlier that afternoon, following two women before heading towards the canal where he isolated Ashling, who was alone.
Puska’s DNA was found on the bike as was his fingerprint and his DNA was under Ashling’s nails.
The prosecution argued that his DNA showed that Ashling had scratched her attacker as she tried to save her own life.