The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
‘Every day is heartbreaking’
Family call for tougher sentencing five years after brutal slaying of mother and 8-year-old daughter
FIVE years after Lithuanian woman Jolanta Lubiene and her eight-year old daughter Enrika were viciously stabbed to death in Killorglin, Jolanta’s sister, Kristina, has called for harsher life sentences for murderers.
Kristina Kuleviciene also says that the family still want answers as to why Jolanta and Enrika died at the hands of Lithuanian Aurimas Andruska, who is currently serving two life sentences for their murders.
Jolanta (27) and Enrika were stabbed more than 60 times at their home in Langford Downs on June 16, 2013. Last Saturday marked five years since the discovery of the brutal scene but time has not dimmed the family’s pain.
“Every day is painful. We try to keep going. Every day I think about how Enrika would look today. She would be a teenager now. Next year would be her first year in secondary school.
“Now she is always a child,” aunt Kristina said in an interview with
The Kerryman this week.
“We have lots of questions. There are still things we don’t know. We still don’t have answers. We still don’t know why it happened.”
Kristina also worries that Aurimas Andruska will get out of jail, and has called for ‘life sentences to be for life’. “I hope he stays there forever. We don’t know how long he will serve but the worst is that some-day he might come back... I think life sentences in Ireland are too low. In other countries life means life. I would be happy if life sentences were for life until they die.”
ON June 17 2013 Kristina Kuleviciene got the call that no family should ever get. Her sister and niece had been found dead in their home in Langford Downs in Killorglin. They had been brutally murdered. Enrika was stabbed more than 11 times; Jolanta more than 60.
It was the day that the lives of their family, who had made Kerry their home, were turned upside down forever.
It has now been five years since that murder shocked Kerry – but the passage of time hasn’t eased the pain for Kristina and her family.
“How can we feel?” Kristana says.
“Even after 10 years it will be the same. We just try to keep going.
“You just try to keep going, but it was like a dream. All we can do is keep going.
“It is heart-breaking. It is not easy. I think about them every day.”
Jolanta would now be almost 32 years of age, Enrika a teenager starting secondary school.
And amid all that pain is the fear that, some day, the man who was jailed for the murder will be released.
“The worst part is, some day, he could come back. Life sentence here is for a few years, not life, so after 10 or 15 years he could be out. We don’t know how long he will serve. We tried to find out but can’t. It’s easy for him; he still has family.
“The Government don’t have experience of what we have. They don’t know how people feel, not just me, but anyone who has lost someone in this way. I would be happy if life sentences were for life.
What Kristina would most like answers to some questions she still has.
“We have lots of questions but never answers. We still don’t know why it happened.”
For Jolanta’s parents the pain will never go away. Their lives ended the day they were told their daughter was murdered. Her Dad, Rimantas, died barely four months after Jolanta. Her mother, Ramuta, spends every day visiting the graveyard.
“For my Mom, it is the worst. She was very depressed. We just have to try and protect her and keep her busy. She practically lives in the graveyard. She is there every day. My Dad died months after. He gave up the fight; he said ‘I want to go to Jolanta and Enrika’.”
Now the family remember Jolanta, Enrika and Rimantas with a special anniversary mass every October in Lithuania.
Last weekend was the fifth anniversary of their death; it was a week of pain and tears, much the same as it is every day for Kristina.
Jolanta was Kristina’s younger and only sister, and Kristina was like a mother to her. She saw her every day, and they minded each other’s children. Jolanta was godmother to Kristina’s son, Erikas, a favourite aunt to her daughter Liveta, and she was godmother to Enrika.
“I especially miss birthdays. It’s five years on and still painful. I try to remember them with a smile. She wouldn’t want us to cry. She was so strong. She was my sister. She was my best friend. It is not the same with best friends as it was with my sister. She was a huge part of my life.”
Killorglin still carries painful memories. It’s hard. The family have no memorial to go and remember her; she is buried in her native Lithuania.
A tree was planted at Scoil Mhuire in memory of Enrika but Kristina says she would love to have some place to go and remember Jolanta.
“There is no graveyard here or a place to go. You see flowers on the side of the road when there is an accident – but we have nothing.”
“We have lots of questions but never answers. We still don’t know why it happened.