SHOCK AND DISBELIEF AT MURDER OF JASTINE
SHOCK AT KILLING OF JASTINE VALDEZ
THERE was shock and disbelief over the weekend as Enniskerry woman Jastine Valdez was abducted and murdered and her suspected killer shot dead by armed gardaí.
Bernard Cawley, a businessman in Enniskerry, said that Jastine was a regular customer of his. ‘She was a lovely person,’ he said, whose smile ‘would light up the whole place’.
Jastine Valdez (24), a native of the Phillipines, was forced into a car close to home last Saturday evening. Gardaí believe she was dead within an hour.
Her killer Mark Hennessy (40), a resident of Bray, went out drinking that night. As the search for him intensified, he was fatally wounded by armed gardaí.
THE ENTIRE county has been left shocked after the abduction and killing of Justine Valdez in north Wicklow.
Mark Hennessy killed Jastine Valdez within an hour of taking her from the side of the road in Enniskerry last Saturday evening, gardaí believe.
Video footage has emerged revealing that some hours later, Hennessy (40) was relaxed and jovial while out for drinks in the Ballybrack area.
‘We know he was out drinking in Ballybrack,’ said Garda Declan Lynch of Bray Garda Station. Investigators have tracked his movements over the period from Saturday afternoon to Sunday evening.
Hennessy was drinking and taking drugs and chatting to other customers in the pub, a relatively short time after carrying out his a heinously violent act.
Jastine’s remains had been left down an embankment thick with gorse. A post mortem will reveal the extent of her injuries, which included scrapes and scratches on her hands.
A woman saw Ms Valdez being forced into a car on Saturday evening in Enniskerry. Jastine had gotten off a bus at Kilcroney Road at around 5.30 p.m., and was making the rest of the journey home on foot.
Later that night, her parents contacted gardaí to report their daughter missing. As the hours passed, concern for her safety grew.
The following day, gardaí searched the location she was last seen and found Jastine’s mobile phone. They then released a description of the vehicle, as well as a description of the missing woman, and partial number plate, with the full number plate to follow later in the afternoon. The car was seen on Quarry Road 35 minutes after Hennessy abducted Jastine, not far from where her remains were later found behind the old golf course. A man reported seeing a woman in distress in the back seat.
On Monday night, Deputy State Pathologist Dr Linda Mulligan carried out a preliminary examination at the Pluck’s Castle site. Teams were searching sites at Killiney and Rathmichael on Monday morning in the aftermath of Hennessy’s death. They found a purse and a sock belonging to Ms Valdez at different spots in Rathmichael. Gardaí believe her body was dragged over the terrain there through gorse before being disposed of in the thicker gorse bank.
Gardaí said that they will be investigating any potential link between Hennessy and other similar crimes in the Wicklow and Leinster areas over the past decades. This would be a matter of course given the modus operandi of the killer.
Hennessy contacted a female relative hours before his death, saying he wouldn’t be back. Gardaí found a bloodstained note in the vehicle, indicating where to look for Jastine. The note has been sent for forensic examination.
Hennessy was self-harming in the car when confronted by gardaí. He attempted to slit his wrists and cut his throat. He was wielding a Stanley knife and trying to attack gardaí when shot.
He was pronounced dead in hospital a short time later.
The encounter occurred at around 8 p.m. on Sunday night at a car park on the
Cherrywood campus. Hennessy had been seen by members of the public in Killiney before he mounted a kerb and sped off. It is believed gardai were able to locate him via his mobile device.
A garda helicopter, patrol cars and ambulances attended the scene of the incident.
Unarmed traffic police were the first on the scene followed by the armed unit. The Garda Siochana Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) are investigating the shooting, as is protocol in any such case. Alternative parking arrangements were made for employees of Dell and other companies the following morning as the scene remained sealed off.
Over 60 personnel, including gardaí and the army, were involved in an extensive search at Rathmichael, resulting in the discovery of Jastine’s remains.
Investigators have not found any indication of a prior link between Ms Valdez and Hennessy at this stage. They are interviewing family and friends of the dead man as part of the investigation in an attempt to establish a motive for his crime.
Hennessy appeared before Bray District Court on Monday, May 15, facing charges of drink driving, dangerous driving, and failing to report a collision, all alleged to have occurred on September 8, 2017, at Meath Road in Bray. The matter had been adjourned to June 11 for a plea or date for hearing.
He had previous convictions for being drunk and disorderly and for possession of cannabis, dating back to the 1990s.