Murder of Jastine Valdez

Jastine Valdez was born in Aritao, on the northern island of Luzon in the Philippines. She was the only child of Danilo and Teresita Valdez.^[1] Valdez raised in the Philippines from a young age by her maternal grandparents Marcelina and Alfredo Caluza, after her own parents had emigrated to Ireland in search of work.^[2] Valdez herself moved at the age of 20 to Enniskerry in County Wicklow to be reunited with her parents in 2013.^[3] The family lived on the grounds of Charleville House, a stately home on the outskirts of Enniskerry, where her father worked as a groundsman and her mother worked as the housekeeper.^[4] Valdez was studying accounting and finance at Tallaght Institute of Technology part-time while also working in a bakery in Bray, County Wicklow.^[5][6]

On Saturday, 19 May 2018, Valdez went to the town of Bray to attend an appointment at the Garda station to renew her residency permit. While in Bray she also went to the gym and to a shop to buy bread.^[7] Later that afternoon, Valdez boarded the 185 bus from Bray back to her hometown of Enniskerry and arrived there at 6 pm GMT. From there she had a 15- to 20-minute walk home along the R760 Kilcroney Road.^[8][9]

At 6:15 pm a witness called the Irish emergency telephone number to report seeing a female pedestrian being forced into the back of a dark-coloured SVU, with a partial registration of 171-D and which was later identified as a Nissan Qashqai, close to the entrance of Powerscourt Estate. Minutes after this sighting, another driver saw a distressed female passenger in an SUV banging on its back window.^[1] Gardaí from Bray quickly dispatched patrol cars to search the area for the suspect vehicle, and the Garda Air Support Unit dispatched a Eurocopter EC135 to help search from the air.^[10]

Around half an hour later, a black Nissan Qashqai was observed driving erratically along Puck's Castle Lane area of Rathmichael, which is approximately six kilometres away from Enniskerry.^[4]

Valdez was reported missing by her parents at 11:40 pm, who had become anxious after being repeatedly unable to contact her and seeing a Garda helicopter circling the skies above Enniskerry.^[10] Gardaí then linked her disappearance to the earlier reported abduction, as it had occurred on Valdez's route home and witness descriptions of the abducted woman being of Asian descent matched her physical appearance.^[5] That night Gardaí issued an appeal for information in connection with Valdez's disappearance and provided a description of the suspect vehicle as well as a partial license plate.^[11]

Gardaí were able to identify the vehicle used in the abduction from studying the CCTV recordings from Dublin Bus vehicles that had driven through the area surrounding the abduction site^[10] and thus identified the vehicle as a Nissan Qashqai with the license plate 171 D 20419 registered to a woman in Bray. The owner was spoken to early on the morning of Sunday, 20 May 2018, and Gardaí learned that her husband, Mark Hennessy had left in the vehicle on Saturday and had not returned.^[5]

At 3 am, Hennessy was identified as the prime suspect in Valdez's abduction.^[4] Gardaí then renewed an appeal for the public's cooperation in locating Valdez, the vehicle, and Mark Hennessy.^[12] Hennessy's family home was also put under covert surveillance in case he returned home, with members of the Garda Armed Support Unit being deployed in the area and put on standby to intercept him.^[10] At around midday, Gardaí made another public appeal to locate a dark coloured Nissan SUV, with a partial registration number of 171-D-2, in relation to the abduction of Valdez.^[13] Following this appeal, Hennessy called his wife to inform her he had done “something awful” and would not be coming back.^[14]

At 5:30 pm, Senior Investigating Officer Detective Superintendent Frank Heneghan held a public press conference and announced the full registration number of Hennessy's Nissan Qashqai, asking the public to inform Gardaí immediately if they see it. Following the public appeal, a witness driving home from work, who had heard public appeals regarding Valdez's abduction, noticed she was driving behind Hennessy's Qashqai in the Shankill area of Dublin. She promptly called the emergency services and followed the vehicle to give real-time updates regarding its location, and finally reported seeing Hennessy drive into Cherrywood Business Park.^[15]

At approximately 8 pm, two Gardaí driving an unmarked garda car spotted Hennessy's black Nissan Qashqai parked in a secluded area of the industrial estate's car park. A Civil Defence vehicle helping in the search then blocked off the entrance to the car park to prevent Hennessy escaping.^[15] As the Gardaí made their way over, Hennessy attempted to drive off, which prompted a Detective Garda in another unmarked car to block its path by parking lengthways in front. Gardaí believed Hennessy had Valdez in the car and witnessed him self-harm with a Stanley knife.^[16] As they got closer, the Gardaí observed that Hennessy was covered in blood from self-inflicted slash wounds to his arm and neck.^[17]

Gardaí attempted to open the locked driver's door of the Qashqai, and then tried to break the window by kicking it. Ignoring shouted warnings to drop his weapon, Hennessy instead began to bend down into the passenger footwell. In the belief that Valdez was in the car and Hennessy was about to slit her throat, the Detective Garda fired one shot at Hennessy from his service revolver.^[18][16] The bullet hit Hennessy in his left shoulder and thereafter ricocheted off his collarbone into an artery, causing massive internal blood loss.^[14]

Gardaí then broke the shattered driver's side window with a telescopic baton to gain access to the car, and after searching the vehicle realized that Valdez was not in the car after all. Despite the prompt intervention of medical staff, Hennessy was pronounced dead at the scene at 8:38 pm, without revealing what had happened to Valdez.^[15] However, a blood soaked note found in the car had the words "sorry" and "Puck's Castle" written on it. Garda technical teams then downloaded the satnav history of the Qashqai to determine its whereabouts over the previous 36 hours.^[14]

On the morning of Monday, 21 May 2018, authorities began to search an area known as Puck's Castle in Rathmichael, and soon discovered Valdez's purse and one of her socks. At around 3:30pm, Valdez's fully clothed body was discovered hidden inside thick gorse bushes. A preliminary autopsy at the scene revealed the cause of her death as manual asphyxiation and that the time of death was within the previous 48 hours, which lead Gardaí to believe that Valdez was murdered almost immediately after she was abducted.^[14][17][19]

The day after the discovery of Valdez's body, a GoFundMe page was set up by a Filipino community group called Outreach Ireland to allow those who wished to offer support and sympathy to the Valdez family to provide financial donations, with the intention to help pay for her funeral and burial expenses (a Filipino tradition known as abuloy).^[20] The memorial fund eventually raised over €150,000 from public donations.^[21]

Valdez initially lay in repose at a funeral parlour in Bray to allow members of the Filipino community in Ireland to pay their respects. Her parents later released a statement paying tribute to their only daughter, while also expressing gratitude to the Irish emergency services and the local Filipino community for their support during their most traumatic times.^[22]

On 31 May 2018, Valdez's body arrived at Clark International Airport in Pampanga, and was then transported by her parents to her home province of Nueva Vizcaya.^[23] On 2 July 2018, after lying in repose in her grandmother's home for several weeks (according to tradition),^[24] Jastine Valdez was buried in her hometown of Aritao in the Philippines.^[25][2]

Danilo and Teresita Valdez later gave a radio interview to RTÉ where they thanked the people of Ireland for the kindness and generosity in the aftermath of their daughter's murder, while also revealing they discovered an unsent letter in her possessions addressed to them in which Jastine expressed her love to both her parents.^[26]

The tragic circumstances of the murder of Valdez caused widespread shock and revulsion in Ireland, where the abduction of a young woman in broad daylight by a stranger was almost unheard of.^[27] A candle lit vigil in her memory was attended by hundreds of people in Enniskerry, while a book of condolence was also opened for people to express their solidarity with the Valdez family.^[28] Her murder occurred just days after the murder of another young woman named Ana Kriégel,^[29] a 14-year-old who was killed by two other teenagers, who would later become the youngest people ever convicted of murder in Ireland.^[30] These deaths led to the Women's Council calling for the government to conduct a review into femicide in Ireland.^[31]

Taoiseach of Ireland Leo Varadkar expressed sympathies and condolences on behalf of the Government, as did Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin and Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald, to the families of both victims.^[32] In response to the attacks on Valdez and Kriégel, Straight Blast Gym owner John Kavanagh, a 4th dan black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu who previously trained Conor McGregor, announced he would be providing weekly free women's self-defence classes to anyone who wanted to take part.^[33][34]

Philippines Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano released a statement confirming Valdez's death, while also expressing sympathies and offering prayers to family.^[35] Valdez's death also caused much anguish and shock in her hometown of Aritao, where many residents followed the case closely on social media. Residents of the town also expressed bewilderment at the randomness of her abduction and murder by a stranger in what was viewed as a traditionally safe Western European country. Hundreds of mourners also visited the family home to view her body lying in an open casket and express sympathy with Valdez's family.^[3]