You’re at peace now
Sister’s tribute as Marie reburied after exhumation in murder probe
Marie Tierney THE sister of a murdered woman whispered “You’re at peace now” as she was reburied following an exhumation.
And her brother vowed to go through “hell on earth” to get justice for Marie Tierney, 34, who was killed more than three decades ago.
Breda Fay also told how their mother “never lived again” after the victim was strangled in Co Kilkenny.
Marie’s body was found in ditch in December 1984, two months after she left her house in Clinstown, Jenkinstown.
A cold case investigation into the murder was opened last year and on Wednesday the mum-of-two’s remains were exhumed from Conahy cemetery in bid to catch her murderer.
A postmortem was carried out before her body was reinterred later that day.
Marie’s brother John Bourke said the exhumation process was difficult but understood it was necessary.
He told RTE Radio 1: “It was hard but we knew it had to be done for the gardai.
“At this stage we’re after going so many years, I’d go through hell on earth to Body exhumed in hunt for clues solve this, and I don’t want to feel like we could be let down after all this again. If it can be solved now, I’ll die happy.”
Breda agreed the process was difficult but said she found her sister’s reburial hugely comforting.
She added: “It was a very special moment for me actually. I felt it was the first time Marie was at peace.
“I can remember the graveyard the day of her original burial. I don’t remember her being put in the grave, I probably wanted to block it out.
“But yesterday I just looked into her grave and I said, ‘You’re at peace now’.”
Breda said the tragedy “destroyed” both her parents.
She added: “My dad died an angry man that he couldn’t get justice for her.
“It took a year for mam to realise she would never see her daughter again.
“She just sat down and waited to die. She was alive but she did not live again. And we had to look at that every day. Our parents pining for their daughter and for justice for her.
“They didn’t get that, and we must get it, and we have such hope in the gardai.”