It will only sink in that my Danielle has gone when I hold her hand
Mum of Irish backpacker murdered in Goa tells of agony
THE mother of tragic Danielle Mclaughlin has said she will not fully accept her daughter is dead until she holds her hand.
A second postmortem on the Co Donegal woman was carried out by the Coroner’s Office on Friday evening at the family’s request after her remains arrived in Dublin.
Speaking from her home in Buncrana, mum Andrea told of her awful realisation when Danielle’s friend Louise Mcmenamin arrived at the family home on Tuesday.
She said: “I knew as soon as I saw her. As soon as she walked in the door I told her. She did not even get the chance to tell me.
“It feels as if it was a year ago and as if it was yesterday.
“It will only get to sink in when I get to hold her hand.”
Andrea also revealed the 28-year-old had decided not to stay in India but was merely planning to learn how to teach yoga and was due to fly to Canada to begin a new life in September.
The heartbroken mother said her daughter had already been granted a visa and how she had wished she had gone to North America instead of India.
She explained: “She was humming and hawing between the two for a while. I was not happy about her going to India this time.
“I would have preferred her to go to Canada but she said, ‘I don’t want to be anywhere else in the world other than India’.”
JUSTICE
Although Andrea wants justice for her first-born, she insisted she did not want revenge.
She added: “Danielle did not believe in an eye for an eye.”
Meanwhile, the results of the second postmortem are expected within days.
A family source said they were not happy with how the Goan authorities had handled the case.
Police said the first postmortem found Danielle died as a result of brain damage and constriction of the neck, possibly strangulation. It also found she had been raped.
The family has now changed its legal representatives and are using a firm based in Derry.
It is hoped Danielle’s remains could be back in Co Donegal by tomorrow or Tuesday at the latest.
Danielle had travelled to Goa with an Australian female friend and the pair were staying in a beach hut.
They had been celebrating Holi, a Hindu spring festival, in a nearby village.
Police said she left late at night and her body was found the next day.
Hundreds of people attended a candlelit vigil for Danielle in Buncrana on Tuesday to show solidarity with her family. Looking ahead to life without Danielle, Andrea said she simply does not know how she is going to cope.
She added: “I don’t know, I really don’t know. I don’t know life without Danielle.
“I don’t know what life is going to be like. I don’t want to even think about it.”
I was not happy about her going to India this time
ANDREA MCLAUGHLIN
ON DANIELLE’S PLANS