A week of agony and horror for Jastine’s parents
‘Fun-loving, wonderful, daughter and friend’
WHILE Jastine Valdez’s bruised body lay in thick undergrowth near Puck’s Castle in the foothills of the Dublin Mountains, her killer’s car was spotted pulling into a carpark in Cherrywood Business Park. The person who saw the car was convinced there were two people sitting in the front and reported as much to gardaí.
Local detectives were quickly on the scene and saw Mark Hennessy in the driver seat of the SUV. He had a knife and was making repeated and frantic stabbing motions. Convinced Jastine was in the car, a trained detective opened fire, hitting Hennessy once in the shoulder. The bullet hit his shoulder blade and entered his torso, causing him to be killed almost instantly. Sources told the MoS the gardaí were trying to save Jastine when they opened fire.
‘The person who called it in said there were two people in that car. They saw the stabbing motion and thought he was stabbing the girl. He was self harming, we now know, but in those few seconds your training takes over and you do all you can to get that girl out.’
A little over 24 hours earlier, Jastine had been travelling on a bus from Bray to her home in Enniskerry, Co. Wicklow, a journey she took often. She was just minutes from home when Hennessy struck near the entrance to Powerscourt Estate. He punched the Filipino student in the face and bundled her into his car.
At the same time, a woman was pulling out of Powerscourt with exchange students in the back of the car. It was a sunny afternoon and she was showing the students the sights of north Wicklow. The woman’s day took a horrifying turn when she saw the incident unfold. She immediately phoned the gardaí, while one of the students, a quick-thinking teenage boy, noted the make, year and model of the car. The woman was able to relay the details to gardaí instantly. Sources told the MoS the woman is struggling to cope with what she saw. ‘She is thinking over and over if she could have done more. She did all she could and her heroic actions ensured Hennessy’s car was tracked and Jastine’s body was found quickly.’
Within seconds, Hennessy was gone, travelling out of Enniskerry in the direction of the N11. Minutes later, gardaí received a second call. This time from a man who saw an Asian girl desperately banging on the backseat window of the same car.
A massive Garda operation had already swung into operation when Jastine’s father, Danilo, and mother, Teresita, reported her missing two hours later. Gardaí released details of the car and told people not to approach it if they spotted it, but to phone them instead. Hennessy’s Nissan Qashqai car was spotted a number of times around the Dublin-Wicklow border in the 26 hours the gardaí were searching for him. At one point, people tried to box his car in at Killiney Dart station, but Hennessy mounted the kerb and drove off at speed.
Unknown to everyone involved in the search, Jastine was already dead. She had been strangled by Hennessy within 45 minutes of him taking her, her body dumped not far off the road in the picturesque setting of Puck’s Castle, Rathmichael. The site where her body was dumped overlooks Cherrywood Business Park where Hennessy was eventually tracked down.
The fallout was immediate and devastating. The Hennessy family was plunged into shock, a respected detective was under investigation by the Garda Ombudsman, and Jastine’s family were left struggling to cope with the enormity of the loss of an only child.
In the days after the shooting, sources told the MoS that Hennessy’s wife, Nicola, was doing well under the circumstances. She has remained at the family home in Bray and has family with her who are providing support. On Wednesday, Nicola was seen lifting her eight-month-old baby girl out of a car, while an older man lifted her three-year-old girl. Rubbing her eyes, the child rested her head on the man’s shoulder as he carried her into the home of a family member. Over the last week, the family has struggled to come to terms with what happened.
On Friday, the Valdez family released a statement detailing their own devastation. They described their daughter as a ‘fun-loving, wonderful, caring daughter and friend’. They thanked the Irish people for their support, along with the Filipino community living here.
‘It has been of some comfort knowing how deeply our beautiful daughter Jastine has affected the people of Ireland.
‘Our daughter’s plans were to settle in Ireland, buy a house here and make a new life. She was a funloving, wonderful, caring daughter and friend. She is always in our hearts and in the hearts of the people of Ireland.’
Mr and Mrs Valdez thanked the emergency services, gardaí and, in particular, two superintendents and their liaison officer.
On Friday evening, in glorious sunshine, Jastine’s parents made their way to Murphy and Son’s funeral home, which sits directly across the road from her killer’s estate off the Boghall Road.
An ambulance was called to attend to Jastine’s mother at the funeral home. She is understood to be struggling tremendously.
In a sad twist, at the same time, Hennessy’s wife Nicola drove out of her estate, passing the funeral home, while Jastine’s family struggled to say their goodbyes.