FAREWELL TO TRAGIC JASTINE
Grieving family ready to lay Hennessy victim to rest after birthday ‘party’
THE family of murdered Jastine Valdez will bury their girl tomorrow – days after celebrating her 25th birthday.
Grieving Teresita and Danilo paid tribute to their only daughter surrounded by family and friends in her
hometown of Aritao in the Philippines on Friday. Six weeks have passed since Jastine’s brutal murder in Dublin at the hands of vile Mark Hennessy who was then shot by a garda. A source said: “They wanted to celebrate their only daughter’s life before her burial.”
MURDERED Jastine Valdez will be laid to rest in her native Philippines tomorrow – six weeks after she was brutally killed by psycho Mark Hennessy.
Jastine would have turned 25 last Friday and her parents did not want to bury her before her birthday, a source revealed.
It is understood grief-stricken Teresita and Danilo threw a bash for their only daughter, surrounded by friends and relatives in their rural hometown of Aritao to celebrate her life.
Following Filipino tradition, Jastine’s body has been lying in repose since its arrival in the country more than a month ago, allowing family and friends to visit her grandmother’s home before the funeral.
A 40-day Memorial Mass was held in Jastine’s home to mark the time that has elapsed since her death.
A second service was also held in Dublin the same day for members of the Filipino community here.
Her family will spend the next six months in the Philippines before returning to Ireland in January.
A source said: “They wanted to celebrate their only daughter’s life on her birthday before her burial.
“Family means so much to the close-knit Filipino community.
“They could not bear to say goodbye to her without marking her birthday with loved ones.”
CAPTIVE
Petite Jastine was snatched off the roadside in Enniskerry, Co Wicklow by twisted Mark Hennessy, 40, on May 19.
It is believed the drugged-up psycho strangled her with his bare hands just moments later.
After killing Jastine and dumping her body near a disused golf club in Rathmichael, Hennessy phoned a drug dealer and bought €200 worth of cocaine in a nearby bar.
During the three-day drink and drugs spree the killer was spotted in several locations including Ballybrack where he grew up and Bray where he lived.
He was cornered in an industrial park in Cherrywood, Co Dublin, the day after he killed Jastine and shot dead by a detective. The garda who killed him believed Jastine was being kept captive inside Hennessy’s black SUV when he took the fatal shot.
The evil killer had run up serious debts to fuel drug and booze benders in the weeks before he killed Jastine.
The construction worker was desperate to hide the fact he owed thousands of euro and the burden of keeping it secret tipped him over the edge. Hennessy took his wife’s car the night he abducted Jastine and left a single-word apology in ink on a blood-stained note reading: “Sorry.”
Gardai believe he had been unravelling for weeks before the murder.
A source said: “He had run up a lot of debts, probably to pay for a serious drink and drugs habit and he had been keeping it to himself. It led to his life spiralling out of control. He couldn’t keep a lid on it, it looks like the stress got too much for him and he lost it altogether.”
The Valdez and Hennessy families revealed they met “in the midst of their grief” in the days after the killing.